Durban - Emotions ran high in the Durban Magistrate’s Court when a Margate father described how a truck driver shot dead and then ran over his son on the M4 last year.
The driver had allegedly forced Brian Duxbury and his 35-year-old entrepreneur son, Richard, off the road, shot the son in the head and drove over his legs before fleeing, Duxbury told the court on Friday.
He broke down in tears when presented with the safety boots Richard had been wearing.
“He wasn’t just my son, he was my best friend,” he said.
Mohammed Sathar has denied charges of murder and pointing a firearm. If found guilty, he could face at least 15 years imprisonment.
Duxbury said he and Richard were driving on the M4 southbound in a bakkie and were near Montclair when they heard a “loud bang”. They wondered if there had been an accident and slowed down.
Then a flat-nose truck came up beside them and pushed them into an island forcing them to stop. The truck also stopped. As Richard got out of the bakkie and made his way to the driver’s side of the truck, Duxbury saw a gun pointing between the driver’s side mirror and the windscreen.
“I heard a crack,” he said, “My son put his hands up and I saw him get thrown back, into the middle lane.”
He ran to Richard’s side. He yelled: “You bastard, you’ve just murdered my son,” and started for the driver.
“Then he pointed the gun at me,” Duxbury said.
He stumbled back and heard the truck start up and saw it drive over Richard’s legs.
“I was so shocked… He had had no respect for my son in life and no respect for him in death.”
Duxbury ran after the truck and took down the registration number.
He became tearful again when shown a photograph, taken after the shooting, showing his son’s body.
But, according to Sathar’s version of events, read out by defence advocate Ravi Reddy, the accused was driving when two “big white men… carrying what looked like sticks” appeared in the middle of the road. He slowed down and they jumped on to the steps of his truck. One began assaulting him through his window and Sathar reached for his gun.
“At some stage the firearm went off and the man jumped off the truck,” he said. Sathar drove away. He maintained he did not know anyone had been injured and did not report the incident because he “wanted it to go away”.
“I am terribly sorry that he died but I had no intention to cause his death,” he said.
Sathar claimed he found a baseball bat in the bin of his truck later that day but Duxbury has maintained that he and his son were unarmed.
The trial continues.
The Mercury