I saw him take his last breath

To: press.office@bbc.co.uk, yourpics@bbc.co.uk, ireport@cnn.com,
InsideAfrica@cnn.com, margaretha@publicy.nl,
foxnewsonline@foxnews.com, news@newsday.com, news@sky.com

*'I saw him take his last breath'*

Jul 07 2008 02:21:42:997PM

Verashni Pillay

A witness has described how restaurant patrons were unable to help after
robbers shot a young father-to-be at Muldersdrift's popular Lion Park
restaurant.

Johannesburg - Robbers who shot a young father-to-be at the Lion Park
restaurant on Sunday didn't allow others to help the man as he took his
dying breath.

"I think they ran in as he was coming out the bathroom and got a fright and
shot him," said Michelle Foyster, who was at the restaurant at the time of
the robbery.

Eight robbers burst into the restaurant at about 14:30 on Sunday, according
to Inspector Odette van Staden. Four of them were armed with 9mm pistols.

Foyster, 33, had just returned from a game drive at the popular Muldersdrift
park when her nine-year-old son and a visiting friend's young children went
into the restaurant to buy cool drinks.

'I thought it was a balloon'

"My friend saw men walking into the shop but I didn't really take notice of
them," Foyster said of the robbers, who made no attempt to hide their faces.

"We heard a 'pah'. I thought it was a balloon popping."

One of her friends went into the restaurant to help Kurt Dieter Huppe, 27,
who was shot for no apparent reason. His pregnant girlfriend was also in the
restaurant.

"He crouched down to try to help but they held a gun to him and said he'd
better get up and move otherwise they would shoot him."

Foyster's son, who had been in a hijacking with his mother in January 2007,
took the two children he was with, aged five and four, and hid behind an ice
cream freezer.

"I'm so proud of him," Foyster said of her son, who witnessed Huppe getting
shot.

"I went through and found them there and crouched down with them," Foyster,
who works from home in Fourways, told News24. "The robbers were shouting at
everyone to keep their hands in the air and to get down and stay down."

All the day's takings were stolen as well as possessions from some of the
100 patrons in the restaurant at the time, according to a Beeld report.

Not in control

"They didn't look totally in control and they weren't very experienced,"
said Foyster, who could see the robbers from where she crouched as she
watched Huppe struggle for his life.

She hid her cell phone in her shirt in case her handbag was stolen, so that
she could call an ambulance to help him.

But Huppe died during the ordeal. "I saw him take his last breath," said
Foyster. "I could see him gasping."

While she felt calm at the time, the tension hit her later. "The crime in
this country is completely out of control," she said, adding that the
hijacking last year together with this incident had made her very nervous.

Muldersdrift police were investigating the incident and were not immediately
available for comment.

Anyone with information about the incident can contact the detective branch
of the Muldersdrift police on 011 957 2312.

Source:
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2353339,00.html