‘Video backs our case’: accused’s lawyer in deadly Joburg road rage shooting

When the man accused of shooting a motorist dead and wounding his wife appears in court for the first time on Tuesday, he will plead self-defence.

The court appearance follows a deadly road rage incident in Johannesburg’s leafy Emmarentia suburb on Sunday. The shooting happened after a bumper-bashing incident along Barry Hertzog Avenue near the Checkers centre.

The incident was captured on camera by a passing motorist and shared on social media. Additional footage filmed by witnesses at the scene also shows the events as they unfolded. One man was shot dead, his wife was wounded in the hand, and another man was arrested.

“We are not worried about our case. The video is clear and shows the sequence of events as they unfolded, and everything fits with my client’s version,” Mohammed Yusuf Razak, the lawyer representing the accused, told Sunday Times.

The accused cannot be identified until he has appeared in court.

Razak said a man in a white BMW, accompanied by his wife and two young children, had been driving aggressively and side-swiped the accused’s vehicle. Both drivers stopped, got out of their cars, and a verbal altercation quickly escalated into a physical fight.

“The wife of the deceased then entered the fracas. Some passers-by tried to separate them, during which time the wife went back to the car and fetched a firearm,” Razak said.

During the confrontation, it is alleged that the deceased grabbed the firearm from his wife and discharged it in the direction of the accused, whose own wife was present.

“At that point my client withdraws, grabs his own firearm and fires three times in the direction of the deceased, who falls to the ground,” said Razak.

The deceased’s wife then allegedly rushed forward to retrieve the firearm, prompting the accused to fire again, shooting her in the hand and disarming her.

“The accused then immediately lays down his gun and sits down. He is a diabetic, and by that point his blood sugar levels were crazy. This can all be pieced together on the basis of observation,” said Razak.

The wife of the accused, who witnessed the events, remains in a state of shock and is dealing with massive social media fallout in which her husband is described as a monster. She declined to speak to The Sunday Times.