The murder trial of a former policeman from Kariega is underway in the Gqeberha High Court.
29-year-old Deswayne Van Staden is accused of killing Bernard Christoffels during a brawl over stolen electrical cables on 27 September 2022.
He also faces charges of the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
On the day he was killed, Christoffels and members of the Gerald Smith community gathered to discuss the power outages that were due to cable theft in the area.
The meeting took place at around 08:00.
The community decided to go to a dilapidated house in the area where cable thieves usually burnt cables.
Upon their arrival, they found four men burning cables, one of which was the accused.
One of the four men who burnt cables was carrying a plastic bag containing electric cables, as stated in the charge sheet.
According to the charge sheet, a fight ensued between Christoffels and the accused when he took the bag containing electric cables from the accused to hand it over to the police.
Christoffels and others then walked down the street with the accused allegedly in front of them.
"The accused turned around, facing the deceased and the others, pulled out a firearm, and shot the deceased."
The accused allegedly fled and Christoffels was declared dead at the scene.
Ricardo Jafta who was present on the day of the shooting testified that he saw Van Staden pull a firearm from his waist and shoot the deceased, stating that he is certain about the shooter's identity.
According to Jafta, he tried to speak to Christoffels, who in turn wanted to communicate but was unable to because he bled from the mouth.
The witnesses made gurgling sounds in court as he recalled the evidence.
The court also heard how Jafta ran back home to fetch his car to take Christoffels to a hospital, but when he returned he was already dead.
The police located the accused later that day in the shack he shared with his girlfriend.
Here, a firearm and five live rounds of ammunition were hidden under the carpet inside the shack.
According to a postmortem report, Christoffels died due to blood loss caused by a gunshot wound to the chest.
The trial continues.
