Chilling warning before J-Bay man’s killing — sister
Neighbourhood watch volunteer claims self-defence in shooting of Clyde Stuurman
Less than a month before he was shot dead, Jeffreys Bay resident Clyde Stuurman confided in his sister that he had been threatened with the words, “If I see you walking in Beefwood [Crescent] again after dark I will shoot you and kill you”.
Yesterday, his distraught family sat in the Humansdorp Magistrate’s Court where Stuurman’s alleged killer, Donovan Wolf, applied for bail and claimed he had acted in self-defen ce.
Outside the court building, Christian Martin, the man who had campaigned for the Port Elizabeth Airport to be renamed Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport, and PA councillor Marlon Daniels held up banners calling for justice.
Dawid Stuurman is reportedly the dead man’s forefather.
According to an affidavit submitted to court yesterday, Stuurman, 26, had told his older sister, Lucretia, of the alleged threat he had received from an unidentified man on January 18.
Wolf lives in Beefwood Crescent.
The 31-year-old father, a neighbourhood watch volunteer and wind farm worker, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of premeditated murder.
Stuurman’s body was found in an open field just off the R102 on the night of February 10.
A postmortem revealed that he had died from a single gunshot wound to his chest, which had then perforated his heart.
Wolf, through his attorney Alwyn Griebenow, told magistrate Una Rhodes that on the night of the fatal shooting, his wife, Jodi, had panicked at seeing some suspicious activity around their home.
Because it was near curfew and they were about to experience load-shedding, Wolf had set out as a protective husband and father, to ensure his family’s safety.
That is when, he claims, he came face to face with a knifewielding Stuurman.
As investigations into Stuurman’s death intensified, Wolf said he had handed himself over to police on Friday to spare his family the embarrassment of him being arrested at home, in front of his three young children.
It was not the first time Wolf had spoken to police about the killing.
He said he was taken in for questioning by police shortly after Stuurman’s death on February 10, only to be released the next morning.
Griebenow said Wolf would plead not guilty to the murder charge on the basis that he had been acting in self-defence when he shot Stuurman, who allegedly had been armed with a knife.
According to Wolf, he had arrived at his Beefwood Street, Wavecrest home, at about 10.20pm on February 10, and as he approached his back door, Jodi informed him of a suspicious man walking in the open field behind their home between Maroela Avenue and Kiaat Street.
Wolf said Jodi then contacted Sarel Breytenbach of their neighbourhood watch group and gave a description of a man walking towards Beefwood Crescent.
In his statement, Wolf said he looked over the wall and saw someone walking in the open plot.
He had then grabbed some clothes and his handgun and set out to investigate.
That was when he saw a person run into bushes of an open plot near the R102.
He had then driven to the R102, parked his bakkie and got out to look for the unknown person.
Hearing a noise in the bushes, Wolf approached the area while holding his firearm.
He claimed he was surprised by a man holding a knife.
Wolf said he fired a warning shot but no bullet discharged.
He then cocked his gun and fired a shot into the ground.
But, according to him, the person with the knife continued to walk towards him.
“With the person throwing himself at me, I think I fired two shots at him.
“The person tried to grab my firearm and a struggle ensued,” Wolf’s affidavit said.
“I held onto it and fought back by hitting against his
head with my firearm.”
He said he then returned to his car when a fellow patroller, Natashja Ellis, arrived at the scene.
In her statement, Ellis said that when she arrived at the scene she had noticed two vehicles parked on the side of the R102 — one belonging to Wolf and another unknown vehicle.
After introducing herself to Wolf, he allegedly told her that there were two men — not just one — and that two shots had been fired.
Much of Ellis’s statement is in conflict with Wolf’s version of events.
Ellis said Wolf told her that when he arrived at home earlier that night he had noticed the door leading to his back yard was open.
When he went to investigate, Wolf allegedly told her, he had witnessed two men jumping over his boundary wall.
He then allegedly ran into his house, grabbed his gun and pursued the “two men”.
But the biggest contradiction came in Jodi’s statement, in which she claimed there was no-one in their yard on the night of the incident except herself, Wolf and their three young children.
Lucretia said the area which had been highlighted by Wolf in his alleged search for the “trespasser”, was often the route her brother used to visit a close friend who lived in Beefwood Crescent.
“Clyde had always walked to [his friend’s] house using one of two ways.
“The first being via Kiaat Street, or through the open plot in Beefwood Crescent.
“The evening of February 10, Clyde left home at about 8pm ... the last time I saw my brother alive,” Lucretia said.
A Herald team visited the scene of the shooting later yesterday. A white cross stood on the side of the R102 metres from where Stuurman’s body had been found in the dense bushes.
The case continues today, when the defence will file its responding affidavits.