Hero teacher saves teen cyclist
13-year-old among latest victims of Victoria Drive attacks
A young Port Elizabeth teacher has been labelled a hero by one of the pupils at her school after she bravely scared off two knife-wielding men, halting a potentially deadly attack on a teenage cyclist.
Thrown off his bicycle and stabbed eight times in the back, shoulder, arm and neck at the weekend, Ethan Scanlan, 13, said he may have been killed had it not been for the heroic deed of the grade 3 teacher at Mount Pleasant Primary School.
But a humble Carla Bonthuys said she had simply done what anyone would have done.
Ethan and family friend Timon Austin, 45, had been cycling in Victoria Drive in Walmer at about 4.30pm on Saturday — Bonthuys’s 24th birthday — when they were attacked by two men.
While Ethan was discharged from St George’s Hospital later that night after receiving stitches, Austin underwent surgery on Sunday morning to repair a 27cm cut on his arm.
Ethan’s father, Michael Scanlan, said the gash on Austin’s arm was so severe his muscle had been exposed.
Scanlan, 42, said that, had the stab wound to his son’s neck been just a few centimetres higher, the blade might have struck an artery, causing the boy to bleed out.
Ethan’s family moved to Port Elizabeth from Gauteng in January in an attempt to get away from the high crime rate there.
His mother, Eliska, 44, said it was ironic that Port Elizabeth was where they had experienced this level of crime for the first time, but added she doubted anyone would have stopped to help had the attack occurred in Gauteng.
“It is rather bittersweet. “The people of Port Elizabeth were absolutely wonderful,” she said.
A shaken-up Ethan, who took up cycling just two months ago, said they were near the Animal Welfare Society grounds in Victoria Drive, and cycling in the direction of Schoenmakerskop, when two men came running towards them.
Austin sped up and managed to cycle around them, but the armed men caught up to Ethan and flung him off his bike.
“They were trying to take the bicycle, but I held on with all my strength.
“They then told me to let go of the f**king bike and to give them my cellphone.”
Ethan, who lives in Providentia, said when he refused, they began stabbing him.
Austin turned around on his bike and cycled back towards Ethan in an attempt to assist him.
“But they attacked him too,” Ethan said.
Both bleeding profusely, the two cried out for help.
“I saw a blue car approaching and I screamed ‘help, help’,” Ethan said.
“It was a female driver. “She looked familiar.” He said the car slowed down, then sped off again.
“But just as I began to lose hope, all of a sudden that same car turned around and drove back towards us.”
Little did he know at the time, his soon-to-be hero was in fact a teacher at his school.
Ethan said the attackers fled when they saw the car approaching and that nothing was stolen.
Bonthuys said on Sunday afternoon that she had not taken much notice of the attackers as her focus had been on helping the bleeding child.
“I don’t think I’m a hero. “I did what anyone would have done in that situation.”
She said while she was aware the place where the attack took place was a crime hotspot, and that she was vulnerable as a woman on her own, she could not abandon a child in a situation like that.
“At first I thought he had fallen off his bike and then I saw that he was in danger,” Bonthuys said.
She immediately called the police and Austin telephoned Ethan’s parents to tell them what had happened.
They then rushed to the scene.
In the meantime, Elizabeth Silli, the owner of Paintball Heaven, close to where the attack took place, also stopped to assist.
Silli, 35, said her staff had been with her and that they had urged her to stop because some of them had been attacked nearby in 2017.
“They pleaded with me to stop and help.
“They said no-one had bothered to stop and help them when they were attacked, and that we needed to do something.”
The Scanlans rushed Ethan and Austin to St George’s Hospital, while Silli ensured that their bicycles, damaged in the commotion, were removed from the scene and safely stored.
Silli said the surge in crime in Victoria Drive was of great concern.
Eliska said her son had been introduced to cycling by a family member two months ago.
“He was never able to cycle back home because of the crime and once we arrived in Port Elizabeth, he took to cycling like a fish to water,” she said.
“Ethan would always cycle in a group and we really thought he would be safe.”
Atlas Security operations manager Monty Montgomery said they had received a callout to the scene of the botched robbery.
A case docket has not yet been opened with the police.