A Pietermaritzburg woman, who was held up at gunpoint, and her son shot in the knee at a Pelham supermarket yesterday, said she has been left traumatised.

The victims’ names are known to The Witness but they asked not to be identified.

“When there is a gun that is pointed in your face, you think about if you’re going to get out alive,” said the woman.

She explained she was standing outside the shop with her husband when the incident occurred. She had been on her phone and did not notice a vehicle reversing towards them.

“[The next moment] I saw one of the guys run up to my husband with a gun to his head and when I looked up, I had a gun against my head – in my face. I just froze.”

She said the robbers then demanded her jewellery and cut it off her hands before she could take it off herself.

“He had a pair of pliers in his hand and he cut my jewellery off me. When he wanted my rings, I begged for him to leave them. He said that if I didn’t give him my jewellery, he would shoot me. I saw that it was a real gun,” she added.

While being held up, she tried to warn a man who lived above the shop, but when the gunman saw her, he walked over, cocked his gun and fired shots at the guy upstairs.

“I think I have a halo around me,” the victim said of surviving the hail of bullets that followed.

“He just let rip and there were between four and six bullets and I don’t know where they went. There were just gunshots going off and I was wondering who they were shooting at as they drove away.

“Then I saw my son and he had his gun out. I gave him the registration number and told him to chase them because they had my jewellery. That’s when he said he had been shot. I looked at him and he was bleeding.”

The woman said, fortunately, an ambulance pulled up to the area almost immediately.

“I just ran to them and told them that my son had been shot. The delivery guy ran and told the staff of the nearby shop and they pressed the panic button. Mi7 was here very quickly,” said the victim.

She explained her son was taken to hospital for treatment.

A resident, who stays nearby, and wished to remain anonymous out of fear the robbers would retaliate, said he was on his way down to the shop when he saw the robbery take place.

“I saw them robbing the couple. I ran back up to call for help and as I came back down, I heard them shooting and I shot back. I saw them shoot her son,” said the resident.

The resident sustained minor injuries from the gun battle as one of the rounds fired grazed his arm. A shop owner from a store nearby also witnessed the couple being held up by four men and immediately placed a call for help on the local community patrol group.

“I went to the shop and I was coming back when I saw the men in the car robbing the couple,” said the shop owner.

“I immediately called for help from the community patrol group and then [the suspects] started shooting.

“The son got shot in the hail of bullets. I froze and I didn’t know what to do. The guns were big and looked like AK-47s and they just started firing, everywhere, in broad daylight,” they said.

Another person from a business nearby said he saw the dramatic exchange of gunfire.

“One of the guys from the top of the building came out with his gun and shot back at the robbers. You could see the rounds littered all over the ground. Then the robbers jumped into their vehicle and fled the scene,” he said.

SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Sifiso Gwala yesterday said the case is still under investigation.

“The police are attending the scene. A case of armed robbery will be opened for full investigation.”