Then came the first shot – straight into the crowd, without warning. Other policemen took up the signal and more shots were fired. Twelve-year-old Hector Pieterson fell to the ground, fatally wounded. He was picked up by Mbuyisa Makhubo, a fellow student, who ran with him towards the Phefeni Clinic, with Pieterson’s crying sister Antoinette running alongside.
The World photographer Sam Nzima was there to record Pieterson’s last moments. “I saw a child fall down,” he says. “Under a shower of bullets I rushed forward and went for the picture.”
Photographer: Sam Nzima
