Durban - The wife of a Pietermaritzburg resident who was shot, allegedly by a policeman after a parking fracas, has spoken of their “nightmare” experience and how she tried to take the bullet to save her husband.
Sheena Perumal fought back tears as she relived their weekend ordeal which left her husband, Gary, nursing a bullet wound to his left thigh.
“I remember telling the man to leave my husband alone and shoot me instead. My children will never be able to live without their father. He is such a good man,” she told the Daily News on Wednesday.
Sheena was angry that the shooter was a police officer, saying her family was now fearful of the repercussions of the incident.
Police are investigating the shooting and have confirmed that a policeman was involved.
Speaking of his ordeal to the Daily News from his hospital bed, Gary Perumal, 42, who works with underprivileged children in the city, said he was still traumatised by the incident, which happened outside his Burger Street home on Saturday afternoon.
Perumal said he had returned home at about 4.30pm to find a green Audi parked in his driveway, blocking his access.
“I got out of my car and walked to the passenger window of the Audi where I saw a woman with her dress hiked up to her underwear. There was a man sitting in the driver’s seat and I asked him to please move his car because he was blocking my driveway.”
According to Perumal, the man refused to move and then proceeded to threaten him.
“He told me that he would use ‘hard core’ on me and drop me. I told him he shouldn’t talk to me like that and I walked to my front gate where my wife and workers were watching. My children were playing in the garden and my three Labradors were also at the gate, waiting for me.”
The distressed father of two young children said he then turned around to see what the driver of the Audi was doing and was shocked to find he was standing behind him.
“He told me that he was going to shoot my dogs. I was taken aback and told him to please leave my pets alone. He then pushed me in the chest and I asked him why he was assaulting me. That is when he pulled out a gun, cocked it and pointed it at me.”
Perumal said that in a state of fear and panic, he ran to his vehicle where he kept a knife for protection, and retrieved it.
“I called the man towards me, in an attempt to get him as far away as possible from my wife and children. By that time my wife was calling 10111 for help, but no one was picking up,” Perumal said.
After the man saw Perumal’s wife making the call to the police, he shouted to the woman in his car to bring him his cellphone.
Perumal said he saw the woman get out of the car, take the man his phone and then run off.
“The man made a call to someone, and after he ended the call, he pointed the gun at me and cocked it. By this time my wife was beside me and she was pleading with the man not to shoot me… She even tried to put herself between me and the man. That is when we heard the gunshot and I fell to the ground.”
Perumal was shot in the left thigh. His distraught wife took him to hospital where he was admitted.
“Because of the massive amount of blood I had lost, I was in and out of consciousness. I just thank God that it wasn’t worse.”
Sheena said she was now worried about their safety.
“We rely on the police to protect us and keep us safe. This is a nightmare,” she said. “We don’t even know whether we are safe in our own home.”
The SAPS said the policeman has not been formally charged and there has been no arrest yet. The Daily News has learnt that police are taking witness statements and that investigations are continuing. Meanwhile, Perumal is still in hospital.
Daily News