A man from Leeudoringstad in Northwest South Africa has been accused of murder and attempted murder after he shot at robbers who were attacking him and his family in his home on Friday night.
Chris Holtzhausen, a father of two, wounded a robber and shot dead his accomplice after a “fight to survive” situation erupted in the family home.
“I knew that if I succumbed, they would kill me and rape my wife and children,” Holtzhausen said.
“I just had to protect them.”
Holtzhausen was assaulted and lost two of his toenails. His wife Elize was attacked with a crowbar. Both now have to take antiretroviral medicine after undergoing HIV/Aids tests.
His mother, Bets, 68, was buried on Friday after suffering a heart attack. Some of the close family members, Hennie Bear, 71, and his wife Vicky, 78, spent the night at the Holtzhausens after the funeral.
Holtzhausen said: “We woke up when our Yorkshire terrier, which slept on the bed, started growling. The robbers were, however, already inside the house.”
Holtzhausen later noted that his palisade fence which surrounded the house had been twisted open and a sliding door had been lifted off its track.
The robbers wore balaclavas and repeatedly hit Holtzhausen on his right arm with a crowbar, local sources said.
They demanded money.
“We told them that there wasn’t any money in the house,” Holtzhausen added.
Both his knees and his feet sustained blows, forcing two of his toenails to be removed. His wife, Elize, sustained injuries to her left arm, knees, buttocks and thighs. Amid the struggle, she managed to pull the balaclava off of one of the robbers who told Elize in Afrikaan: “Leave him. I’m going to use a knife to cut you.”
Hennie Bear was reportedly “fighting for his life” with some of the robbers, when one pressed a pistol to his head.
During the assault, some of the robbers ramsacked the house.
Amid the commotion, reports suggest that Holtzhausen managed to “fetch his pistol from a safe and fired two shots in the lounge”.
“I can’t describe how terrible it was, but I had to pull the trigger in self-defence,” Holtzhausen said.
Four of the robbers fled, and the police found a backpack containing stolen cellphones, wallets, iPads and the watches of the two children.
Holtzhausen told local media that his eldest daughter has been severely traumatised and she is refusing to return home.
“We were still traumatised following my mother’s death and on top of that we had to be burgled as well.”
The family members are going to receive counselling.
The Northwest police are searching for four robbers who fled and are investigating a case of armed house robbery.
Police spokesperson Sergeant Kelebogile Moleko said it was standard procedure to open a case of murder or attempted murder after someone dies or is injured in a shooting. He said as soon as the investigation is completed, the dossier would be handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority to decide whether anyone would be prosecuted in connection with the shooting (News24).
In 2016, Leeudoringstad police recorded a total of 99 burglaries at residential premises – a sharp rise from 2010 which recorded only 50.
