Pete Mihalik supposedly was under round-the-clock protection, was killed Monday by a hit man who fired into his car as he dropped his two children at school in Cape Town
A top criminal lawyer was executed with shots to the head by a hit man as he dropped his two terrified children off at the school gates in South Africa.
Pete Mihalik, 50, who has built up a reputation representing top members of the region’s underworld was supposedly under 24 hour protection.
He was executed Monday by a hit man who fired into his car as he dropped his two children at school in Cape Town.
Attorney Pete Mihalik, who has been on round-the-clock security, died instantly when the suspected assassin fired two bullets from point-blank range at his head. The suspect is in police custody,
The victim’s eight-year-old son was also hit by a bullet and is thought to have suffered a head injury. A backpack reportedly belonging to the boy was seen covered in blood.
Mihalik’s teenage daughter was unhurt in a rear seat but was left severely traumatized.
She jumped out of the car screaming for help.
The cold-blooded murder of one of the Western Cape’s most talented criminal lawyers in cold blood has shocked the judiciary and the legal world and stunned police.
Mr Mihalik, 50, has represented a number of extremely prominent underworld figures in the Cape Town gang wars which have resulted in many hits over the last two years.
The father-of-two is said to have been deeply involved in the stand-off and has been acting a ‘middle man’ trying to resolve the dispute between two rival gangs.
Pete Mihalik’s Mercedes-Benz sedan showing the bullet riddled window. The criminal attorney was killed outside his son’s school in Cape Town on Tuesday morning. His son was wounded in the incident
Crime scene: Forensics team outside the Reddam House School, Cape Town, SA Tuesday morning after the shooting
Both men worked together representing clients alleged to be part of the Cape Town criminal underworld.
At the time of Mr Hassan’s death Mihalik told News24: ‘He believed everybody had a right to a fair trial under the Constitution and he always fearlessly defended that right’.
The school was on total lockdown on Monday after the shooting, as police cordoned off the front of the school and the lawyer’s Mercedes-Benz for forensic detectives
Mihalik reportedly, was deeply involved with Cape Town underworld. He was well known for representing some of the most notorious alleged members of the ‘underworld’ but insisted he never took sides and defended those who need it.
The advocate is said to have round the clock protection but an eye witness said that the gunman just walked up to his Mercedes-Benz AMG and fired through the window.
A bullet hold can be seen in images circulating on Twitter through the drivers’ window.
A South African Police Service spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that a 50-year-old man has died after being fatally shot.
‘An 8-year-old boy was also injured and has been taken to hospital for treatment. A girl who was in the car was uninjured in the attack which took place at 7.35am’
Police also confirmed that an arrest has been made for the murder.
‘This office can confirm that a suspect is being questioned by detectives of the anti-gang unit in connection with the murder of a 50-year-old man this morning in Green Point’ the spokesperson said.
The execution took place as Mr Mihalik was about to drop his two children off at the Reddam House school on the Atlantic Seaboard at Sea Point where the gunman laid an ambush.
The school was on total lockdown yesterday as police detectives cordoned off the front of the school and the lawyer’s Mercedes-Benz for forensic detectives. he son is a student at the school.
The gunman was whisked away by a getaway driver in a metallic grey VW Golf as terrified teachers and parents ushered their children inside the school to safety as paramedics were called.
Mihalik’s law partner, 45-year-old Nooruiden Hassan was also executed in cold blood by a gunman in Cape Town two years ago. the practice allegedly was deeply involved with Cape Town underworld
It is not understood yet where Mr Mihalik’s round-the-clock team of bodyguards were.
An eye witness said: ‘The gunman put his gun back in a brief case and got into a VW golf and was driven off. It was over in seconds. Two bangs I think and then he was gone.
‘Then I heard a girl screaming for an ambulance and it all went a bit crazy’ she said.
The advocate is said to have round the clock protection but an eye witness said that the gunman just walked up to his Mercedes-Benz AMG and fired through the window
Mihalik a member of the Huguenot Chambers in Cape Town, was called to the bar in 1996 and was one of the top defense advocates in South Africa.
Records show he had suffered a string of horrific tragedies with his wife, mother and sister all committing suicide before the age of 50. In a revealing interview with Rapport newspaper in 2016, Mihalik spoke about the heartache of losing the three women who he dearly loved and the scourge of depression. in 2015, his wife Karin hanged herself due to depression at the age of 48. His mother committed suicide after ingesting rat poison at the age of 38.
The third relative, his sister, took her life jumping off a building at the age of 38 – the same age as their mother when she died.
Caught in the middle? Pete Mihalik was due to feature in the trial of alleged extortion syndicate boss Nafiz Modack in Cape Town Regional Court next week
The lawyer and his two children, now completely orphaned, were said to live at a luxury apartment in nearby Mouille Point and neighbours said he drove the children to school every morning.
Cape Town’s elite Anti-Gang squad of detectives were called in to take over the investigation with the death being immediately linked to the murky Cape Town underworld.
In the past two years, a “turf war” reportedly has been playing out in Cape Town between a more established grouping linked to Sea Point businessman Mark Lifman and a new faction headed by Nafiz Modack.
The Booysen brothers, Colin and Jerome ‘Donkie’ Booysen, have been divided, with Colin siding with Modack and Donkie with Lifman. Two sides have been carrying out a bitter ‘turf war’ to control the City’s drug trade and to provide protection on the doors of clubs and nightspots resulting in many fatal shootings. The result has been numerous tit-for-tat shootings, as well as attempted and successful assassinations.
It’s believed that Mihalik had found himself deeply involved in this standoff and had attempted to intervene to resolve the dispute.
Mihalik was due to feature in the trial of alleged extortion syndicate boss Nafiz Modack in Cape Town Regional Court next week.
The trial is said to feature five men said to be key figures in the Cape Town underworld.
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