Gunman started rampage after row with girlfriend
A security guard, outraged at being dumped by his girlfriend, shot her and nine other people dead in South Africa, before turning the gun on himself.
Seven other people were also seriously injured in the shooting spree last night, which took place in the Mdantsane suburb of East London.
Bulelani Vukwana, 29, and his girlfriend Nulovuyo Mbenya had a fight yesterday during which she ended their relationship, said police spokesman Inspector Stephen Marais.
Witnesses told police Vukwana had gone to Ms Mbenya’s house to try to persuade her to come back to him, and after a further argument he shot her in the head at close range outside her kitchen door.
Insp Marais said Vukwana then went to a bar next door to his girlfriend’s house, and shot and wounded the owner. He then went to the back of bar and shot another man dead.
He returned to the street where he encountered Lulamile Phantsi, who had been called to the scene to help, witnesses said. Vukwana shot him in the neck, and made off in his pick-up truck.
A short while later he returned to his girlfriend’s house, and shot her father Maxanjana Mbenya dead.
‘‘After that he went on a rampage and shot whoever he could see,’’ Insp Marais said.
Witnesses told the Daily Dispatch, an East London newspaper, Vukwana had fired at two cars, killing the driver of one, and two passengers in another, before shooting at random at pedestrians.
When police arrived on the scene, Vukwana fled in the truck, and a short chase ensued. The security guard then abandoned the vehicle, and fled through the suburb on foot, pursued by police.
When Vukwana saw he could not escape, he pointed his gun at his temple and pulled the trigger, witnesses told the Daily Dispatch.
The injured were taken to hospital in East London, where they were in serious but stable condition, Insp Marais said.
Apart from the girlfriend, all the dead were men.
Stotshulo Vukwana, the security guard’s father, told the Daily Dispatch when he had seen his son 10 days earlier he appeared happy and had not mentioned that his relationship was in trouble.
‘‘I am shocked. This is not my son as I knew him,’’ he said.
South Africa has one of the world’s highest crime rates. In the first nine months of last year, 15,054 people were murdered, an average of 54 a day, according to police statistics.
