Durban - A WEEK after surviving a shooting that injured five people and shook the Bluff community, Ricardo Lottering said he was still traumatised by the incident.
He is recovering in hospital.
“When it is quiet and I hear a little sound, I feel like it is happening again. I talked to my wife about it and she said she has been having flashbacks as well,” he said.
Lottering’s wife Aretha was also injured in the shooting last Saturday at a birthday party at Anstey’s Beach on the Bluff that involved off-duty SAPS officers and SANDF members.
Lottering said he had never been in that type of situation before and got the fright of his life when three men fired on him and his friends.
Recalling the event, Lottering said that one of the party-goers had broken their car key in the car’s door.
They were asking passing motorists if they had any pliers to help them remove the broken key when they stopped a vehicle with SANDF members inside.
Lottering said an argument broke out between the two parties as the soldiers were swearing at them. As the matter escalated, the soldiers went to a nearby lodge to get their guns, he said.
The 38-year-old claimed the soldiers started to fire at him and his friends. He was in his car with his wife when the shooting began and saw one of the bullets strike his wife on her jaw. He also saw a family friend being wounded.
As the soldiers continued firing from their high-calibre rifles, Lottering said he thought his wife and the family friend had died. At this point, he said he got his gun and started firing back at the soldiers, who stopped advancing towards them.
“They were shooting at us in proper military style while we were in the car. It was by God’s grace that we survived,” he told the Daily News from his hospital bed.
It was only after his uncle shouted that he was a police officer that the shooting stopped. He said he had been struck by a bullet that had exploded inside his leg. The damage to the leg had resulted in him having two operations within a week.
He said one of the operations was to remove dead muscle from his legs. He added that he would need to undergo physiotherapy to learn how to walk again, and that doctors said it would take a long time for him to heal.
SANDF spokesperson Brigadier-General Mafi Mgobhozi said the matter had been handed over to the SAPS for investigation.
The police did not comment at the time of publication on whether there had been any arrests.