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Lauren Dryden was killed by a cell phone.
PHOTO: Supplied by Angus McKenzie
- Fernando Isaacs made his first appearance in Bishop Lavis Magistrates Court for the murder of Lauren Dryden.
- She was shot dead outside her workplace on Friday.
- Dryden had been killed by just a cell phone, Angus McKenzie said angrily.
The man accused of gunning down a Cape Town mother waiting for her taxi to take her home has had numerous run-ins with the law over the past decade, mayor JP Smith said Monday. .
Fernando Isaacs made his first appearance in Bishop Lavis’ Justice of the Peace, where the case against him was postponed until November 30 to request bail and obtain a legal aid attorney.
He is charged with the murder of Lauren Dryden, a mother of two, who was robbed and murdered while waiting for an electronic call service to pick her up outside her workplace on Kinghall Avenue, Epping, early Friday morning.
She had worked the night shift and had requested a taxi to take her to her home in Bonteheuwel when she was robbed and shot.
Outside of court Monday, locals rallied and demanded justice for Dryden.
Smith addressed the crowd and said the suspect has been in and out of jail for the past 10 years.
“The system is failing,” Smith told residents, noting that the province had a gang conviction rate of just 3%.
Those who pondered around the court entrance asked why Dryden had been shot, as she had reportedly already been robbed when the shot that killed her was fired.
“Why kill her? He got what he wanted, the pig,” said one man.
Angry neighborhood councilman Angus McKenzie criticized authorities and the judicial system, saying repeat offenders should be in jail, not on the streets.
“What happened on Friday was unnecessary. If this court building behind me and the police station at the end of the street had done their job, [not] we have this mess that we’re dealing with now. “
He continued:
She was a woman who worked [the] all night for his family, who had wanted to go home to their children.
McKenzie said he met Dryden the day before her murder, when he helped her as part of a Covid-19 relief program.
He has been in contact with his family, who were heartbroken over his murder, he said.
Dryden had been killed just by a cell phone, McKenzie said angrily.
“This individual has been arrested many other times … he has found himself falling through the cracks of a broken criminal justice system. That must come to an end.”
The National Tax Authority has not been available for comment to confirm claims that Isaacs had previously been in trouble with the law. The comment will be added once received.
