Three people died and another was wounded in a shooting in the centre of Braamfontein on Thursday afternoon. The incident, which killed two taxi owners and a student, is said to be unrelated to the taxi business, according to an industry insider.

WARNING: Photographs may distress readers.

'He said he would come back to me!" cried the wife of one of two taxi businessmen shot and killed in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on Thursday afternoon, 29 February. Two students travelling in a bus were caught in the crossfire, with one dying on the scene.

Daily Maverick was on a separate assignment a few metres from the scene, on the corner of Jorrissen and Bertha streets, when we heard a round of gunshots and witnessed a sea of students running towards the University of the Witwatersrand. Police arrived shortly afterwards to cordon off the area.

The body of one of the victims, a middle-aged taxi owner, was hanging from the back window of a BMW 320 as blood dripped from his head. The driver of the vehicle, a taxi rank manager, was also shot dead in the car.

The vehicle had been parked opposite the Wits Art Museum, where a third person had left the vehicle to fetch a colleague at the nearby Braamfontein Total Garage. The shooting took place shortly after the person exited the vehicle.

A taxi owner and member of an association affiliated with the deceased, who asked not to be named...