Advocate tells how he fought off attackers
MBOMBELA - “Nobody survives an onslaught of five shots from between one to two metres, then gets attacked by a man armed with a crowbar, and lives to tell the tale. It truly was nothing but a miracle that I survived.”
Senior advocate and acting judge, Leon Halgryn, relayed his incredible story of survival after he had been attacked in the dead of night by two men armed with a revolver and a crowbar while he was staying in a lodge in Mbombela last week.
He said the attack began at around 00:30 last Wednesday and lasted for about eight minutes, although it felt like an eternity.
“I do not sleep well, so I was already awake when I heard a noise at my door, as the men were jerking the door in an attempt to force it open,” said Halgryn.
Barefoot and in shorts, he pressed his face against the glass to look out, when he saw two men, one armed with what looked like a .38 special revolver and the other with a crowbar. He realised immediately these men were intruders and began screaming at the top of his lungs for them to leave, threatening that he had a gun and would shoot them if they did not leave.
He screamed at them in English and Afrikaans interchangeably to ensure they understood. He screamed non-stop throughout the attack. “As I was screaming at them through the door, one of the men pulled out a revolver and pushed it in my face. I knew he was going to shoot. I remember his eyes like it was yesterday. They were pitch black and callous; there was no mercy. They made no demand, they were just there to kill me.”
Halgryn said he managed to duck out of range before the man shot through the door into the room. With shattered glass flying all over the room, the noise of the shot and those that followed were deafening and overwhelming, with the strong smell of gunpowder in the air. The next few minutes were absolutely chaotic.
He used the wall next to the door as a shield and instinctively began drawing the attacker's fire by hitting the door with his open hand and kicking it with his heel. The men clearly could not see into the room and every time he hit and kicked the door, screaming non-stop, the gun-wielding attacker would shoot through the glass panes of the door.
The door had two bullet holes after the attack.
“Then they started kicking the door and forcing it open and I would do my best to forcefully close it again. Eventually it opened. Every time I attempted to force the door closed, the shooter would fire through the opening. There was clear evidence of at least five bullet holes in the blanket and sheet on the bed, one of which ended up in the wall behind the bed.
“The floor was covered with broken glass. I fought back to push the door closed but every time the door opened, he shot."
Halgryn vividly recalls being absolutely astonished at not being struck by any of the shots. He said the .38 special revolver only carries five rounds and by this stage, the attacker had emptied his rounds and appeared to leave, presumably to reload. This was the moment the attacker with the
‘With shattered glass flying all over the room, the noise of the shot and those that followed were deafening and overwhelming’
crowbar burst into his room.
Halgryn said he usually carries one of his licensed firearms with him as well as pepper spray, a taser, a baton and knives for protection, but had thought that because he was staying in a lodge, he would not need his pistol.
All his self-defence weapons he did bring along, however; these were lying next to his bed, which he was unable to reach due to the shooting.
Fortunately, he got hold of one his knives in the little kitchenette next to where he was standing.
As the man wielding the crowbar attempted to hit him over the head, Halgryn blocked the blow with his left forearm and attempted to stab the attacker in the neck or shoulder. “I know I somehow missed him, but when I picked up the knife the next day, it was broken; so I suspect I hit the door. It is perhaps so that the gun-wielding attacker kicked the door the moment I attempted to stab the one with the crowbar. I had two wounds to my left forearm, one on the outside and the other on the inside, so I suspect I was hit twice.”
He said he felt the attacker with the crowbar was clearly not prepared for a fight with a knife-wielding victim, clearly taller than him and obviously not backing off.
The man with the crowbar ran out after Halgryn had tried to stab him, and he saw through the door and window that the two men ran to his bakkie in the parking lot. “I was convinced they would return and I put on a jacket and armed myself with pepper spray, a taser and another knife,” said Halgryn.
“This was a hit as far as I was concerned. Akin to a farm attack. Just a plain farm attack. They made no demand and in fact never spoke. They came to kill. After the one emptied his gun, the other one immediately attacked with the crowbar. They were hellbent on killing me. I do not suspect that it was a professional hit, however, due to who or what I am.”
Halgryn said the men must have reloaded the gun and they fired some shots through the front windows of his bakkie windows and stole some cash. They also stole his hunting crossbow, which the lodge found later on Wednesday morning. Watching them look around in his bakkie with a light, possibly one of their cellphone torches, Halgryn said he got back into position behind the wall with his pepper spray in one hand and a knife in the other, and prepared for their return. He wanted to ambush them if they came into the room again. He left the doors open this time.
“But they must have seen me waiting for them or perhaps they opened up my crossbow bag - it is a vicious-looking weapon, with telescope and all, and it resembles a rifle. I have a feeling that they said to themselves, this man is insane and perhaps he is not lying when he says he is armed; he is clearly a hunter and could well have a firearm with him as he says.
“I think they decided it was not worth it, and as they were running away I again (perhaps naively) shouted, “I am going to f ****** shoot you!”
Concerned that the attackers might return, he ran to his bakkie, made some attempts to clear the driver’s seat of broken glass, switched the bakkie and its headlights on, and reversed to the parking lot, which was well lit.
If they returned he intended to attempt to run them over. Following a struggle to get signal, Halgryn eventually managed to call his attorney, who called a security company that came to assist. He said the police and an ambulance also arrived. His room was an absolute mess, with broken glass everywhere, bullet holes in the door, the bed and wall, and blood on the floor and linen from the wounds he had sustained from the crowbar attack.
After the attack, he spoke to a number of people knowledgeable in the field of self-defence, and they all agree that it is scientifically near impossible that he survived. “I was extremely lucky and I truly thank God for taking care of me. I also thank all the security personnel who assisted and the members of SAPS and the ambulance service who attended to my wound.”