Johannesburg - The man accused of murdering motorcyclist Douglas Pearce on Valentine’s Day last year has spent hours during his murder trial trying to explain why he tampered with the crime scene.
Meekahaefele Masooa spent three days under cross-examination at his trial in the high court sitting in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court.
The State alleges Masooa shot Pearce after a verbal altercation on Malibongwe Drive, firing as the biker turned away and killing him at the scene.
Masooa has claimed since the incident that it was in self-defence, and that the biker had been attacking him face forward when his firearm discharged.
On Tuesday, State advocate Arveena Persad questioned Masooa on why he had picked up Pearce’s gun after the shooting, saying this was tantamount to tampering with evidence.
When asked why he did not leave the gun on the ground for police to pick up, Masooa was adamant that if he had not picked it up, bystanders and motorists who witnessed the scene could have stolen it.
Masooa believed that if the gun had gone missing, with only his own firearm left on the scene, he would have been seen as guilty immediately.
Persad said that considering he himself was armed, it was odd that he did not simply stand near the gun to ensure it was not stolen, but Masooa was adamant that if he left the gun to wave down other motorists to call an ambulance for help, it could have gone missing.
Masooa claims that Pearce had been following him for more than 5km, swearing and shouting racist slurs before eventually using his motorcycle to block the motorist in the emergency lane.
It was after seeing Pearce brandishing a firearm that Masooa grabbed his own gun and a physical altercation erupted outside Masooa’s vehicle.
This was when his gun accidentally went off, twice.
However, Masooa was asked why, instead of aiming his gun directly at Pearce during their altercation, he hadn’t fired a warning shot.
Masooa claimed there was no time to do so, and began a lengthy tirade in court on how Pearce had been trying to kill him “like a chicken”.
“I am not a chicken! You can’t draw a firearm like Rambo and try to scare people,” he said.
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