Six men were locked in a bathroom. On the other side of the door, they could hear everything.
They heard the gunmen shouting at Raul Damons, demanding money. They heard him answer that he had none on him — only R30 000 sitting in his bank account.
Then they heard him beg.
"Raul started begging for the men not to shoot him, and then he started crying. Then, he began to pray," his cousin Benjamin Tarentaal told the Eastern Cape High Court in Gqeberha on Thursday.
"After praying, it went quiet."
The silence did not last. A single shot to the head ended Damons' life inside his own home in Strelitzia Park, Kariega, on 30 December 2022.
A Police Sergeant In The Dock
The man the State says helped arrange his death wears a uniform.
Sergeant Rudy Arends of the Visible Policing Unit at the Kamesh Police Station stands accused alongside three suspected gang members — Clinton Minnies, Deilon Makoppa and Curtis Pietersen.
All four face:
- Murder
- Conspiracy to commit murder
- Wilfully aiding and abetting criminal activity committed in association with criminal gang activity
- Performing an act aimed at causing, bringing about, promoting or contributing towards a pattern of criminal gang activity, in contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act
"Why Is It So Quiet?"
Tarentaal took the court back through the day.
He and Damons, along with a few others, had spent time at a workshop where repairs had been done on their vehicles. At some point the men decided to head back to Damons' house.
Damons drove his Golf GTI, with Jesse Williams in the car beside him. Tarentaal followed behind in Damons' VW Transporter.
When they pulled up, Damons and Williams got out first.
Tarentaal remembered asking Williams a question as they arrived — why was it so quiet?
It was never that quiet at that house.
A Gun In His Face At The Door
He walked in anyway.
Inside, a man was waiting for him with a firearm pointed straight at his face. He was led further into the house.
In the kitchen, a second man had a gun trained on Damons.
Tarentaal told the court he became angry while they were held at gunpoint. Damons tried to bring him down, telling him to "be calm."
One of the gunmen told Damons to keep talking to him — and threatened to put a bullet in Tarentaal's head, because he was making the gunman nervous.
Six Men, One Bathroom
Tarentaal was then locked in a bathroom.
He was not the first one in there. Williams was already inside. So were Keenen George, Dante Martin, Egan Pyon and Zavian George.
From behind that door they listened to the arguing, the demands for money, the begging, the crying, the praying.
Tarentaal said he worked out what was coming. He put his hands over his ears to try not to hear it.
It did not help. He heard the shot.
Calling A Name That Would Not Answer
Once the gunmen had gone, the men broke out of the bathroom.
Tarentaal walked out into a house where his cousin was lying dead, blood pouring from his head.
He called Damons by his name. Again and again.
Then he realised he was gone.
The Trial
Warrant Officer Xlo Peta is the investigating officer. State Advocate Liezel Landman is presenting the case.
The trial continues.
