Five charges. No firearm. No answers. That is what the state is sitting with and Brown Mogotsi is not talking yet.
Mogotsi faces five serious counts: defeating the ends of justice, perjury, illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, and discharging a firearm in a public place. When journalists approached him, he refused to comment. His only words were that he would speak at the “right time.” Those standing near him said he looked rattled but he held himself together.
Police confirmed the charges but threw in a detail that stops you cold. The firearm allegedly used in the incident has not been found. That weapon is still missing. Without it, a critical piece of the state’s case has a hole in it that prosecutors cannot yet fill.
Perjury alongside illegal firearm charges tells you something about how investigators read this chain of events. They allegedly believe Mogotsi lied under oath at some point. That is not a minor detail perjury alone carries serious prison time, and stacked on top of four other counts, the picture gets darker the longer you look at it.
Outside the court, a woman in a faded blue work uniform sat on the steps and said nothing. She’d been there since the doors opened. She wasn’t moving until she knew something anything.
The question nobody can answer right now is where that firearm went and whether Mogotsi was the only one who knew.
If you live near this case — do you think the firearm will ever be found, or has it already disappeared for good? Drop your thoughts in the comments.