Cape Town - Ethan Fisher, 24, appeared on Tuesday in the Cape Town Regional Court for the murder of Franco D’este, 20, who was gunned down during a night out with his friends.
Fisher has been charged with two counts of murder and attempted murder following an incident at the corner of Loop and Shortmarket streets on September 7, 2019 where he admitted shooting D’este in what, according to Fisher, was an act of self-defence.
Video footage of the incident was presented to the court while Ikraam Jefferies was on the stand as a State witness. Jefferies was with D’este and was directly involved in the altercation which led to his friend’s death.
Fisher was represented by attorney William Booth, who vigorously questioned Jefferies during cross-examination and said that Jefferies had given different versions.
Jefferies told the court that he, D’ este and two other friends arrived at a club on Loop Street at around midnight, but D’este changed his mind. As Jefferies and D’este made their way back to the car, they were unknowingly walking behind Fisher and another man.
Fisher turned around and asked them, “Are you following me?” as he took out a firearm and fired a shot.
He told the court that he and D'este at that point tried to take the firearm from Fisher: “I went to him trying to get the gun, I wanted to grab it. I didn't know it was a real gun. I wanted to take the gun off so nobody could get hurt.”
He said the footage depicted a scuffle between a group of men. Jefferies out pointed Fisher in court as the man holding a firearm, shooting at him and D’este.
The footage shows D’este falling to the ground, moving around, while Jefferies, Fisher and another person gathered around him.
On realisation that his friend had been shot, Jefferies tries to engage in a fight with Fisher but then retreats. D’este is then picked up off the street and they walk towards Loop Street.
Hours later, D’este died from the gunshot wound at Christiaan Barnard Hospital.
Booth asked Jefferies if he considered what he did as an attack on Fisher, but Jefferies maintained he and D’este were trying to get to the firearm so nobody could get hurt. When Booth asked him why he didn’t walk away when he saw the firearm, he said he acted out of instinct.
At the time of the incident, Fisher had turned himself in to police and handed over his licensed firearm. At his first appearance at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, Fisher was released on R2000 bail as it was believed that Fisher had shot D’este in self-defence.