‘A Bullet in His Head, Shrapnel in His Child’: Durban Family’s Long Wait for Justice

Every morning, Omar Ismail wakes to the same reality: a bullet is still lodged in his head. Fragments press against his brain, too dangerous to remove. Doctors have warned that surgery could kill him. So he lives with the metal, and with the slow deterioration of his memory, his speech, his future.

His daughter Yusraa carries her own burden. Shrapnel remains in her small torso. It cannot be removed. Loud sounds frighten her. Car rides unsettle her. She was just 22 months old when she was shot.

His wife Asma Mahomed lost a limb. A single police bullet tore through her lower right leg. Surgeons amputated to save her lifeand the life of the unborn child she carried that night.

This is the reality the Ismail family has lived with for nearly five years. And they say the state has barely listened.

The Night That Changed Everything

It was the evening of 16 July 2021. The family was driving home along Sheringham Road in Overport, Durban. Without warning, police opened fire. Bullets tore through their VW Polo. Omar was shot in the head. Asma’s leg was shattered. Their toddler was struck by shrapnel.

Police have maintained they were pursuing armed suspects in a silver Toyota Etios and that the Ismails were caught in crossfire.

The family’s legal team tells a different storyone they say has been proven in court through CCTV footage, ballistic evidence, and eyewitness testimony.

“They raised issues which are in the pleading that Omar here had been responsible for the injuries to his wife and his child and himself because he knew he was driving into gunfire and therefore he is what you call consenting to self-inflicting injuries,” the family’s legal representative explained.

“In other words, when you go on the Big Swing and you decide that you’re taking a voluntary risk of harm, it’s a legal principle in our law. You take it, you sign off a waiver. He didn’t sign any waiver; he’s just driving on the road in this way.”

The Evidence They Say Exonerates Them

According to the family’s submissions to Police Minister Firoz Cachalia, the trial evidence undermines the police version:

• CCTV footage shows no hijacking and no fleeing suspects.

• Police vehicles showed no bullet damage. No officers were injured.

• An independent eyewitness testified that only police officers were shooting.

• A police ballistic expert’s findings supported the family’s account, not the State’s.

• Photographs used to justify the shooting do not match the vehicle police later presented as evidence.

They say the defence relied on a silver Toyota Etios that never existed at the scene.

A Family Crumbling While the State Delays

In recent weeks, Omar and Asma sent fresh memorandums to the minister’s office. They describe a family unravelling while the legal process drags on.

Omar’s health is declining. The bullet fragments in his brain are affecting his cognition. They fear what will happen if judgment is delayed by years of appeals.

Their daughter will grow up with shrapnel inside her body and memories she is too young to understand.

Asma has learned to live with a prosthetic limb, her career and independence stripped away in seconds.

Dreams died on that road. Plans to move abroad. A stable future. Financial security. All gone.

Now they live with Asma’s mother. They rely on family. They survive day by day.

“We desperately need your help,” they wrote.

They say they have sent memorandum after memorandum. They say they have received silence.

The State’s Response

Police have stood by their version of events. The family’s wounds, they argue, were the result of a lawful operation gone wrong.

The police ministry did not respond to detailed questions by the time of publication.

What Justice Would Look Like

For the Ismails, justice is not about money. It is about acknowledgment. It is about the state admitting that its officers fired on an innocent family, that a toddler was struck by police shrapnel, that a woman lost her leg, that a man carries a bullet in his brain.

It is about accountabilityso that no other family endures the same silence.

The High Court is preparing to deliver judgment. The Ismails remain suspended in the aftermath of gunfire that never truly stopped.

A bullet still sits in Omar’s skull. Shrapnel still lies in his child’s body. A leg is still missing.

And they wait.

{Source: IOL}

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