Young woman pepper-sprayed, stabbed on beach

A young Port Elizabeth woman narrowly cheated death after being attacked and stabbed while walking her dog on a Summerstrand beach before two good Samaritans raced to her aid. The dramatic daylight attack left Jayde Frost, 21, struggling to breathe as she was rushed to hospital with a punctured lung. The attack happened on the beach at about 5pm on Monday – only 100m away from the Hobie Beach car park – between Shark Rock Pier and Pollok Beach. Frost and her miniature Doberman, Jasmine, were pepper-sprayed after they were attacked by a knife-wielding man. Frost, who recently graduated in ministry studies and is furthering a career in acting and dancing, was unable to speak yesterday, but in a voice note to her father sent shortly after her ordeal she explained in detail what had happened. Frost was sitting on the beach with Jasmine, when a man approached her. “He asked if everything was OK and I grabbed my dog and told him that we were fine. “He then started scratching in his jacket and pulled out [a can of] pepper spray and asked for my cellphone,” she said in the voice note. Frost said Jasmine had been barking at the man and she had told him he would not be taking her phone. “He warned me that if I don’t give the phone he was going to pepper spray me and my dog. He then sprayed both of us until the can was finished . . . “He then ran after me and I told him I was going to call the police,” Frost said. “He carried on chasing me and then pulled out a knife. He kept trying to push me between him and the dog. While this was happening we ended up fighting in the [shallow] water. “We were wrestling and I kept telling him he was not going to get my phone.” In the scuffle, Frost was stabbed in the back. “I did not even know I had been stabbed until later. During the scuffle, I managed to take the knife off him and slit his hand. “He then started running away and I thought to myself that I was not going to let him get away with this. I chased after him while he ran up a sand dune and into the bush. “I then carried on running along the beach when I found two women and asked them for help. I was unable to breathe and still did not realise I had been stabbed.

“They told me to lie down and went to get help.” Frost’s father, Arthur Frost, a pastor at the Father’s Heart Church, said Jayde had managed to call him while running for help. “I jumped in the car with my son and rushed down to the beachfront.” Arthur said Hennie van der Merwe, who lives in a beachfront flat, witnessed the attack. “He had run down from his place to assist but by the time he got there the attacker had run off and jumped into a taxi on Marine Drive. “He [Van der Merwe] managed to talk to her and offered to take her to hospital. “It was only then that they lifted her top and saw that she had been stabbed in the back. “Obviously she was very nervous to go anywhere with strangers so he then called a doctor friend who lives nearby.” Within minutes, Dr John Crockett arrived on the scene and began medical treatment. “He identified the punctured lung and knew if he did not rush her to hospital, her lung would fill with fluid. “I had driven past and saw them carrying my daughter’s limp body to the car. I slammed on brakes and jumped into the car with her and he [Crockett] rushed off to hospital. “She was fully conscious but struggling to breathe. Luckily, Dr Crockett had called ahead and arranged all the emergency staff to be ready. “Within seconds of arriving, . . . they began emergency treatment.” Arthur said the Defining Gravity Dance Studio jacket his daughter had been wearing had stopped the knife from penetrating other organs and causing more damage. Asked whether they were going to report the attack to the police, Arthur said they would do so once Jayde had recovered. Municipal spokesman Kupido Baron said their cameras did not pick up the attack. There were two cameras at Hobie Beach but none between Hobie Beach and Pollok Beach. Baron said they also had daily patrols on the beachfront.