'Help me': Hero describes how he saved the life of shot cyclist

In an emotional radio interview‚ a former DJ described how he stopped blood pouring from a cyclist who was shot twice in a robbery in Gauteng over the weekend.

Jon-Jon Pietersen‚ who works at recruitment company PNet‚ told Jacaranda FM on Monday that he and a friend had been driving in the Krugersdorp area looking for new hiking spots when he heard someone shouting for help.

“We hike to raise awareness for animals in distress. We took a drive out. I was sitting on the passenger side with the window open‚ which made me hear the guy. We were on Kromdraai Road… He managed to put his arm out and said‚ ‘Help me’. I climbed out the car. I was cautious as one should be‚” he said.

Pietersen said he found the cyclist rolling around. “You could see he was in real pain. I put my foot on the wound. I needed to do something. I put on gloves. I noticed blood coming out of his back. I saw a hole. I needed to apply pressure. I used my arm. By that time‚ somebody else had stopped.”

Pietersen used a towel to try and slow the bleeding from the cyclist’s leg.

A bullet had also gone through his back‚ he said‚ and the cyclist was bleeding from his stomach‚ indicating that the bullet had passed through him.

The injured cyclist was airlifted to Milpark Hospital.

Asked how the cyclist is doing now‚ an emotional Pietersen said: “Jim is doing okay. He messaged me on Saturday‚ late. He said‚ ‘Thank you that I can hold my son again’.”

He said he was overwhelmed by the attention he had received since saving the cyclist and posting about his encounter with the injured man on Facebook.

“I never thought I knew I could‚ but I did: I saved a man’s life‚” Pietersen said on his Facebook page.

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