WINDHOEK – A 19-year-old woman tried to save a man who collapsed next to her house after he was stabbed allegedly by an ex-girlfriend at an Okuryangava shebeen on Friday evening.
The teenager, Lucia Wilhelm, a criminal justice student at Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) lifted Thomas Alweendo Nicholas’ head and placed a T-shirt on his neck to stop the gushing blood until the paramedics arrived who effortlessly tried to resuscitate him.
Nicholas, who lived a street away, was declared dead at the scene. He died in Wilhelm’s hands. “I know him, I just don’t know where he stays. I wouldn’t confuse him with any other person,” Wilhelm said yesterday. She was getting ready for school when the incident happened.
After the stabbing, Nicholas’ friends tried to get a taxi to take him to the hospital as the ambulance took long to arrive but were warned by the community members not to.
“When he (Nicholas) fell, I quickly ran to him. He didn’t say anything when he collapsed but one could tell he can hear and he was breathing. His friends came telling him to hold on. Don’t die on us,” Wilhelm told New Era.
Nicholas was allegedly stabbed by an ex-girl Hannely Unotjari Karukua, 19, who has been arrested and appeared in the Katutura Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Karukua was denied bail due to the seriousness of the allegation as the investigations are at an early stage. The case was postponed December 4, 2018.
Nicholas and Karukua dated for about two months this year but were separated at the time of the incident.
During the scuffle, a friend of Nicholas allegedly stabbed Karukua twice in the head and was arrested.
It is alleged Karukua, who was in a company of a male companion, got into an altercation with Nicholas at a shebeen in Okuryangava.
An eyewitness said the two went behind the shebeen where a heated argument led to the stabbings.
A memorial service for Nicholas will be held today at Ombwiindja Street in Okuryangava. He will be laid to rest at Olange yaNashimbuli in the north.