One of the Absa Cape Epic’s favourite sons has survived being ambushed and shot at his country home.
|||Cape Town -
One of the Absa Cape Epic’s favourite sons has survived being ambushed and shot in the neck at his country home.
Brian Pickering has for a decade been one of three lead motorbike riders for “the Untamed African MTB Race”, who ride ahead of the field to ensure the routes through the notoriously rugged terrain are clear.
He also assists with the routes’ design through the Cape countryside, and owns Nature Discovery Tours, which offers quad bike tours through the Cape countryside.
Pickering’s home is a cottage at the Elgin Grabouw Country Club.
Police spokesman FC van Wyk said last night Pickering had been at home at about 10.15pm on Sunday when he “went to investigate a suspicious noise coming from the back of his house”.
A colleague told the Cape Argus he understood that outside taps had been turned on. Pickering had gone outside and “was then attacked by an unknown male”, Van Wyk reported.
“A scuffle ensued and the suspect shot the victim and fled the scene on foot.”
Pickering’s colleague, Sean McGuire, said Pickering moved his head before the attacker fired, resulting in the bullet hitting his neck and not his head.
Pickering alerted residents at the club and was taken to hospital.
Last night he was undergoing an angiogram to ascertain whether any blood vessels in his neck had been damaged, but it appeared the bullet had missed his spinal column and his trachea. He also has a severely injured arm.
Van Wyk said the gunman was still at large.
Cape Argus