Durban — Murder-accused pensioner, Anthony Ball, has told the court that he had fired a warning shot trying to get Dean Charnley away from him because he feared if he had got his hands on him he would end up seriously injured – or dead.
Ball is accused of killing Charnley in an alleged road rage incident on Everton Road in Kloof in 2022.
“(Charnley) jumped out of his car and started coming towards me in a state of annoyance and irritation and in an enraged state. He got to my car and started beating on the mirrors, the roof and the bonnet.
“He shouted ‘WTF are you doing?’ I pointed my gun through the gap in the window and let off a shot to his left. I was hoping it would be seen as a warning shot.
“He was a large man with a beard and tattoos all over his arm who came over to me shouting and swearing at me. I actually feared for my life, it is as simple as that,” Ball testified in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Ball said everything happened in a matter of seconds; he did not recall which part of his vehicle Charnley had started beating.
“The sound was like sitting in a petrol drum and having someone outside beating it with a stick or a pole.
“The shot did not deter him, he put his hand through the gap in the window and tried to latch on to my hands and my gun. He lunged for my gun and in the scuffle it must have gone off because I did not intentionally pull the trigger,” Ball said.
After this, Charnley slumped against the door of Ball’s car before falling on to the road. The pensioner then went to the Hillcrest SAPS to report a case of intimidation, however, this was later changed to murder, when an officer from the scene arrived at the station and said Charnley was dead.
The events leading up to the shooting are in contention, as Ball maintains that while driving up Fields Hill and on the M13, Charnley was driving extremely close behind his vehicle in the fast lane.
His evidence is that when he got a chance to move over to the left lane, he anticipated that Charnley would overtake him but he continued to tailgate him.
This is while evidence of two State witnesses, including Charnley’s son, who was a passenger in the car, was that Ball had blocked Charnley from overtaking a number of times in the left lane.
“If he had pulled me out of the car, I was no match for him physically,” Ball told the court.
“I’m 74kg, and I have since found out that the deceased is +- 150 kg (estimated) and much taller than me, while I am small. I would have ended up a vegetable and the rest of my life would have been reduced to being in a bed.”
The accused, while on the stand, refuted the evidence of a State witness that he was attempting to open his car door to exit with gun in hand, and Charnley was preventing him from doing so. Ball continues with his evidence-in-chief next week.
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.
Daily News