Dad-to-be shot in restaurant

At 2:30pm in the afternoon in broad daylight!

- - - - -

A young man went to wash his hands at the Lion Park restaurant and on his way back to rejoin his pregnant girlfriend and her six-year-old daughter was killed by a single gunshot to the chest.

Kurt Dieter Huppe, 27, of Benoni was the third person to die at this popular Muldersdrift park this year.

One was a man who was torn apart by lions.

Inspector Odette van Staden said eight robbers burst into the restaurant about 14:30, four of them armed with 9mm pistols.

About 1 600 people visited the park on Sunday, and nearly 100 visitors were in the restaurant when Kurt was shot, said Ian Melass, the park manager.

According to witnesses the robbers ordered people to lie down while they forced the cashier to hand over the money.

Kurt was shot when he unsuspectingly entered the restaurant from the toilet, said his girlfriend, Stacey Wooley, 23. She is four months pregnant with his child.

Stacey and Kurt had lived together for the past four years and he was like a father to her daughter. Stacey and her daughter were sitting in the picnic area of the restaurant when Kurt went to the bathroom, said his father, Dieter Huppe, on Sunday night.

That was the last time Stacey saw him alive. Huppe said his son, who worked in the IT sector, phoned him that morning for directions to the Lion Park. "It's terribly sad that we had to lose him so early in his life. He worked hard," said a traumatised Huppe.

Karl Huppe, 24, Kurt's younger brother, said the family all received trauma counselling. They gathered at the parents' home in Glen Marais in Kempton Park on Sunday night.

Melass was saddened about the shooting. "I always tell my staff, 'Safety first'. Rather hand over the money than put your life in danger. I think the robbers panicked and then shot Huppe."

He said all the day's takings had been stolen - all the gate, restaurant and curio-shop money.

"Some people were also robbed of personal possessions. South Africa has become a problem area."

Van Staden said the robbers fired a second shot, but no one was hit. They sped off in two green BMWs, a maroon Toyota Conquest and a white Volkswagen Jetta. No suspects have been arrested.