15 randomly slaughtered in S. African bar by unknown gunmen

Fifteen South African people were killed and nine wounded in a bar in Johannesburg's Soweto township overnight when gunmen in a minibus began to "randomly" open fire at them. The injured were rushed to a local hospital.

Based on the number of spent cartridges found at the scene, all indications are that it was a group of people and it also seems that the massacre was planned out to some degree.

Gauteng province police commissioner Lt. Gen. Elias Mawela spoke out about the shooting.

“The primary investigation suggests that these people were enjoying themselves here, in a licensed tavern operating within the right hours,” Mawela said.

“All of a sudden they heard some gunshots, that is when people tried to run out of the tavern. We don’t have the full details at the moment of what is the motive, and why they were targeting these people.”

“You can see that a high caliber firearm was used and it was shooting randomly. You can see that every one of those people were struggling to get out of the tavern,” Mawela added.

He said the area where the shooting took place was dimly lit — making it difficult to find witnesses who could identify the suspects.

Rifles and a 9 mm pistol were used in the attack, said national police spokeswoman Col. Dimakatso Sello.
Authorities say gunmen began to fire “randomly” into the tavern.

But this isn't the first mass shooting at a tavern in South Africa of late. In a separate attack, four people were shot and killed by unknown gunmen in a tavern in Sweetwaters township in the city of Pietermaritzburg last Saturday night.

The police say in the earlier incident that two men entered the tavern and randomly opened fire at the patrons. Two died at the scene and two at the hospital.

There seems to be a pattern: bar/tavern, premeditated and planned random shootings, and alcohol at the scene. What could it be?

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The pair of shootings do not appear to be linked, local police said, but I disagree. Could it possibly have something to do with Islamic terrorism? Boko Haram, perhaps? I wouldn't bet against that possibility, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

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