A Bedfordview woman held hostage by her husband who also allegedly shot and wounded her friend and three police officers on Monday told TimesLIVE Premium she and her children are battling to understand what triggered him.
When TimesLIVE Premium arrived at the scene on Monday, a day after the incident, the bedroom door the man had shot at was riddled with bullet holes. The family had cleaned blood stains from the floor but spots of blood could still be seen on a window.
A trail of blood stains led from the gate to the front door of the house.
The couple's four children were home, washing sheets, blankets and curtains bloodied during the drama. One of the children had an injury on his left eye.
“I don't know what got into him,” the 44-year-old mother of four said of her 38-year-old husband.
The couple are not being named to protect the identity of their children, aged 14, 16, 19 and 21.
Sitting in the lounge of her home, the woman recalled the weekend's events, saying her husband lied about the whereabouts of his gun to the police, only to ambush and shoot them.
She said an argument started on Saturday evening when she tried to wake up her 19-year-old son after a traditional ceremony earlier that day. She and her husband are traditional healers.
“There was a ceremony and the boy drank umqombothi and slept. I tried to wake him up and the father asked why should I wake him up while he was asleep.
“There was a conflict. He beat me up.”
The woman said her husband complained that she and the children were not obedient and were disrespectful and if children were asleep they shouldn’t be woken up. Her husband didn't allow her to explain and started assaulting her and told her to go and wake the other children. He then allegedly also assaulted them.
“He beat them up for a long time using the belt. He pushed me out of the way and started beating all of them. He had called all of us to sit in the sitting room.
“He took something [a leg of a chair] from the chair and beat up the 14-year-old.
“That's when I moved and took that thing from the chair. I couldn't take it anymore. It was as though he wanted to stay alone. He came back to me and we started fighting. I told him I can't keep quiet and die all in the name of respecting him.
“While we were going outside, he said he was going to fetch his gun. I knew he would take time as he needed to take the key to unlock the safe. I said to the children, 'Let's go.'”
The woman and her children fled to her friend's house, where they spent the night.
On Sunday morning, she alleged she told her friend she needed to call the police who would accompany her to go and collect her clothes.
They police — a man and woman — arrived. She told them her husband was armed and the officers called for backup. Two more officers arrived and they, with the woman and her friend, went to the house.
They arrived to find the main gate unlocked but the security gate leading into the house was locked. The man came to the door. The police officers spoke to the man, who said he wanted his wife and children. He allegedly told the police to wait outside as he wanted to talk to his family.
“I said I won't go inside. I know he has a gun. He didn't hold it [in his hand], he concealed it somewhere. Eventually he opened the door and allowed them to go inside,” the visibly distraught woman told TimesLIVE Premium.
“We sat down and spoke and he asked why the police came in because he only wanted to speak to us and asked the police if they didn't have conflicts in their families.
“I pleaded that he should allow me to take my belongings, [saying] maybe you will calm down and then I will come back, then we can talk. He asked if I still loved him and I said, 'I will always love you, because loving someone is not something you switch on and off, but for now I am thinking about my life and my children's life.'”
When the police spoke to him, he asked why she didn't get a protection order as she was claiming he assaulted her. She told him she only wanted her belongings.
“The police said it was better to follow the law and asked him to hand over his gun. When they said that, he said the gun was underneath the bed in the bedroom. I was seated on the sofa and the one police [officer sat] beside me,” she said.
When they went to the bedroom, he allegedly took out the gun and started firing at them.
“The police officer at the entrance door to the lounge and I ran. The three [officers] ran to the room with my friend. I think some got shot when he was shooting through the door.
“When I went out, I ran in between the two police cars. The children were outside. I tried to run while the police were in the bedroom, but he asked me to come to him. I realised he would shoot me [if I didn't oblige].”
He held the gun to his wife's head and started calling the children who had no choice but to walk to him inside the house.
Once the family was inside, the man allegedly told the wounded police officers to go outside.
The woman said she struggled to open the bedroom door and found her friend had fallen behind the door. She had been wounded.
A policewoman was wounded so badly. It seems she was shot in the back. I don't know about the other officers but it seemed the other one was shot in the hand. My friend was shot twice in the shoulder
— Woman involved in Bedfordview shooting
At this point, she said, the police were trying to break the burglar bars on the window to escape.
“A policewoman was wounded so badly. It seems she was shot in the back. I don't know about the other officers but it seemed the other one was shot in the hand. My friend was shot twice in the shoulder.”
The policewoman was eventually helped out of the house by the couple's children.
The hostage situation lasted more than two hours and when other police officials arrived at the scene her husband told her to go and tell the police to leave. She did so.
Police intensified their efforts, deploying a helicopter to the scene.
“The police were many. He eventually calmed down and told me to get out, and the children, and he would kill himself. I called his home and his father asked him not to kill himself.
“When we went out, the police said we should go to the ambulance in case anything happened so we shouldn't hear or see because we didn't know what got into him. He is a responsible person who looks after his family,” she said.
One of the back-room tenants living on the property said he wasn't at home when the incident happened but his wife kept calling him while he was at work. The tenant, who asked that he not be named, said his wife locked herself inside their room while the incident was happening.
“I knew there was nothing I could have done as I was far away,” he said.
A neighbour said the man was calm and found it hard to believe he was capable of such horrific deeds.
“Sometimes people could be good while not at home and change when they get home.
“One thing I know is the man demanded respect from his children. Sometimes he would arrive at home late in the evening and hoot once and the children would quickly get outside and unlock the gate,” said the man.
The suspect was arrested. He is expected to appear in court soon.
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