Gauteng police working to dismantle Facebook group threatening male teens in Westbury

Police in Gauteng said its cyber security unit was working to dismantle a Facebook gang group known as Fast Guns that has been threatening male teenagers in the community of Westbury in Johannesburg.

Four teenagers attacked a group of seven other boys between the ages of 13 and 19 in a house that's suspected to be a drug den and opened fire, leaving two dead and five others critically injured earlier this week.

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Westbury residents showed members of the media the Facebook group, where pictures of young boys, including the seven victims, were posted with messages threatening their lives.

According to the police, adult gang leaders are the criminal masterminds behind both the social media Facebook group and the inciting of violence between young boys.

Westbury community members said that when your picture was posted on the Facebook group belonging to the Fast Guns, you were essentially their next target.

The grandmother of two of the victims who survived the ordeal said she, herself, had been targeted on the very same social page.

"I don't know how youngsters can speak about elderly in the community. I'm a 70-year-old woman, but I must still get these threats."

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said cyber unit teams were working around the clock to track and dismantle the Facebook group and any other groups that are created.

"As police, we cannot allow that such Facebook pages advertise kids, so we are in the process to make sure that we take down those Facebook sites."

In the meantime, he said the police’s anti-crime unit continues to patrol and monitor the situation at Westbury.