PE stab victim dies ’a hero’
Kamma Park man knifed in neck while trying to protect girlfriend
THE devastated family of a Port Elizabeth man stabbed to death while trying to protect his girlfriend from muggers in Central were battling yesterday to come to terms with his “senseless murder”.
Newly qualified gas technician Clyde Byrns, 26, of Kamma Park, bled to death on the pavement near the Engen garage in Rink Street after being stabbed in the neck.
Police patrolling in a van saw the scuffle but arrived seconds too late.
Three people have been arrested.
Byrns and his 28-year-old girlfriend, whose name is being withheld for her protection, were walking in Rink Street at about 10pm on Sunday after withdrawing cash from an ATM when two men and a woman snatched his girlfriend’s handbag.
Byrns was stabbed during a scuffle with one of the muggers. His shattered family hailed him yesterday as a hero for fearlessly taking on the muggers.
Byrns, who moved back to South Africa six years ago after living in the UK for several years, worked at Fennell Gas and Appliances in Newton Park.
He had been a part-time DJ and plumber in London.
His mother, Thereasa van Wyk, 46, said: “I just can’t believe my only child is gone.
“He was such a nice guy and was loved by everyone – he just had one of those personalities.”
Van Wyk, who also lives in Kamma Park, said Byrns, who was raised in KwaZulu-Natal, had been “in love with Port Elizabeth, the outdoors, and the country”.
“He came back to South Africa to live in the country that he loved and to be closer to family,” she said tearfully.
Byrns’s manager at Fennell, Derek Johnson, said they were stunned by his death. “It is just such a shock.
“He had such a lot going for him. He recently passed all his exams and would have gone far in the industry.
“I just can’t believe it. He was such a nice guy and a hard worker who was determined to go forward in life.”
Van Wyk said she had received a call from the police shortly after falling asleep on Sunday night, saying that “he had been in an accident and they were sorry that there was nothing they could do”.
She immediately phoned her sister, Billie-Jean, 43, and they sped down to Rink Street in separate cars.
When they arrived, the street was cordoned off and about 12 police vehicles were on the scene
“He was just lying there, on the pavement,” she said, weeping. “They wouldn’t let me near to see him.”
Billie-Jean said the small family – now consisting of only the two sisters and their mother – was “completely shocked and devastated” by the “senseless murder”.
“We are completely shattered. We are such a small family and now he is gone,” she said, crying. “Those people [the muggers] must pay. They do not deserve bail or to be free.”
Billie-Jean moved back from the UK in March after 17 years to be with her family and look after her mother, Annetjie, 64.
“His [Byrns’s] girlfriend said the robbers tried to grab her handbag after they came from the ATM.
“The robbers attacked them while they were crossing the road but Clyde managed to push them away and yelled at her to run,” she said.
“She thought he was behind her but, when she ran into Parliament Street, she turned around and he was not there. She ran back and found him lying on the ground with someone applying pressure to his neck to try to stop the bleeding.”
Police spokesman Captain Stanley Jarvis said Byrns’s traumatised girlfriend was treated for shock after the incident.
“It appears that Byrns and his girlfriend had left the El Dorado Restaurant and Bar in Parliament Street to go to the ATM in Rink Street,“he said.
“As they left the ATM, the three suspects allegedly tried to grab the woman’s handbag. Byrns intervened and a fight ensued between him and one of the robbers. He was subsequently stabbed in the neck.”
Jarvis said patrolling police saw the scuffle and went to assist, but the muggers fled in different directions.
“By that stage, Byrns had already been stabbed in the neck,” he said.
The suspects had all been arrested by midnight.
“The suspected murder weapon was allegedly found hidden on the woman, wrapped in a bandage on her arm.”
Jarvis said a woman who witnessed the attack had come forward but could not be named due to the sensitivity of the case. The suspects are due to appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court today.