The bail bid of Alodixashi Sheik Yusuf was postponed on Wednesday to give the State time to verify his refugee status.
Yusuf, who followed proceedings through an interpreter, was told he faces charges of murder, attempted murder, and illegal possession of a firearm.
In an affidavit read to the court by his lawyer, Simon Senosi, Yusuf explained how 14-year-old Siphiwe Mahori died outside his shop in Snake Park, Soweto, on Monday, January 19.
Yusuf said he had just closed shop when a group of people tried to open the roller door. Others were on the roof.
As he and his brother pushed the door down, one of the people outside the shop dropped their firearm. The firearm landed in the shop and he and his brother managed to shut the door.
Yusuf said he picked up the gun and fired at the roller door and the roof.
The crowd remained outside and police arrived a short while later.
“I then saw there was a boy shot,” Yusuf said in his statement.
Another man had been shot in the arm.
Yusuf told the court he intended pleading not guilty to the charges.
Mahori’s death led to days of looting of foreign-owned shops in Soweto and other parts of Gauteng, during which at least seven people, including a one-month-old baby boy, were killed in the province.
Four Ethiopians were attacked and wounded in their shop in Nsuze, near Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal.
