A man was viciously murdered in a brazen assassination at an Engine filling station in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, on Sunday, and the entire ordeal was captured on CCTV.
UPDATE: Mpumalanga police have finally issued a statement on the incident. See updates below.
Ermelo Engine assassination: Hitman calmly collects shell casings after brutal murder
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In the video footage, which has since leaked on social media, six men, including the station’s serviceman, were seen huddled behind a blue vehicle, exchanging chuckles moments before tragedy struck.
As the target of the hit, now identified as 25-year-old Smangaliso Innocent Nkosi and two of his mates walked away from the huddle, cheerful in their stride, out of nowhere, a man dressed in grey jeans, white sneakers and a dark-coloured t-shirt ran up to the group with his gun cocked and offloaded the magazine indiscriminately.
In a shocking scene that will send chills coursing through your body, as the victim lay bleeding from a gaping head wound, the gunman calmly kept turning away to leave, before returning to execute a grotesque act of overkill.
Bizarrely, the victim’s mates, as well as the station serviceman, calmly tiptoed away from the gory scene, totally desensitised to the appalling events unfolding before them.
The gunman, described by authorities as a man known to the victim, after emptying his firearm, was caught on camera collecting the shell casings that would tie his murder weapon to the assassination with a chilling display of stillness.
In a statement, police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala confirmed the investigation is currently in the hands of Detective Sergeant Bheki Masina.
“The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in Mpumalanga Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela has condemned the brutal murder,” the statement read.