Shock claim from teen on stabbing
KILLED in KNIFE fight: Young Wade Williams, 24
A 19-year-old witness on Monday shocked the court when she said, “they shot my brother in front of me, so this is like nothing”, as she testified in the trial of four men accused of killing a Kensington man.
Shannon Smith, 29, Aiden Petersen, 21, Kyle Crouch, 23, and Melvin Filander, 26, appeared in the Cape Town Regional Court facing charges of murder and attempted murder after Wade Williams, 24, was stabbed to death on February 1, 2020, in Typhoon Street.
They pleaded not guilty but a fifth accused, Ashwin Landsman, is serving a 15-year sentence after he entered into a plea agreement with the State.
The witness said she was there when the alleged stabbing happened. She had gone to a tavern with Williams’ mother, Wendy, when she saw the five ouens approaching him as she stood outside.
“They were on their way to the tavern and Wade gave way but then all of sudden, Shannon turned around and asked Wade ‘do you want to take over the tavern?’ but Wade was confused.”
She said Williams didn’t say anything but Smith punched him and then they started fighting as she and the tavern security guard watched.
She said: “It looked like Wade was winning and then Maggie [Landsman] stabbed him in the head with the knife. Wade was standing there with blood dripping down his face. He asked Smith ‘what’s going on, why are you doing this?’ Then I saw Smith coming from the back, he stabbed him in the neck with a knife, but I didn’t see where he got it from.”
She called Wendy and that’s when Williams started running with the five men chasing after him. She said the two men closest to Williams were Smith and Landsman, who tripped him and stabbed him further.
She said when his mother caught up with him, she took off her dress and placed it on his wounds to stop the bleeding. “Wade was lying there bleeding to death,” the teen added.
Smith’s lawyer Ingrid Rensburg, during cross-examination, said Smith denied he was involved or participated in the incident. She added that Smith would testify that he was stabbed that evening outside the tavern and then left for his girlfriend’s house and never returned, but the witness was adamant her version was the truth.