A vigilante killer has become a local hero in a South African township where they have dubbed him ‘John Wick’ due to his deadly attacks on a crime gang since the summer.
The unidentified vigilante has been targeting members of a gang called ‘Boko Haram’ in the township of Mamelodi in the city of Tshwane in the northern South African province of Gauteng. The gang is not believed to be affiliated with the Boko Haram terrorist organisation present in Nigeria, Chad and Mali.
‘John Wick’ started his killing spree against the Boko Haram gang in August and the last suspected attack was on 26th October after an absence of over two weeks since he last struck on 10th October.
In that time, the vigilante killer is believed to have been responsible for at least seven deaths and gang members are now living in fear, according to the news site TimesLIVE.
During his latest attack, the mystery vigilante reportedly assassinated a leading member of the gang called Phillip Given Mnguni, 35.
Local media said ‘John Wick’ started trending on Twitter after the suspected gangster was allegedly killed by the same vigilante who had been carrying out similar shootings in the area since August.
The police said they were responding to a shooting incident on the N4 Highway that resulted in one death and one injury.
Police spokeswoman Brenda Muridili said eyewitnesses saw someone in a silver Mercedes-Benz shoot at the occupants of a black Volkswagen Polo, causing the driver to lose control.
The local authorities pronounced the driver dead at the scene and the surviving passenger was taken to a nearby hospital with an unspecified number of gunshot wounds.
According to the police, Mnguni was connected to several investigations in Mamelodi regarding the Boko Haram gang.
Gauteng police commissioner Elias Mawela said he was “the number one wanted suspect in our investigations into the Boko Haram activities in Mamelodi”.
The police commissioner added: “The sentiment shared by a lot of people is that it is long overdue. They are happy with the situation. But as the CPF, we are not happy. Whether they are part of the community or gangsters, it is one death too many and it affects everybody.”
South African netizens flooded social media with John Wick memes related to the latest suspected killing, with some posts showing some of the alleged criminals killed by the fugitive, but Mawela said they were fake.
Tebogo Mashigo, head of the Community Policing Forum in Mamelodi West, said that residents are praising the vigilante for doing the police’s work.
However, as the bodies of Boko Haram gang members pile up, the ‘John Wick’ killer may not be the local hero many residents believe he is.
Pretoria News said the vigilante could be linked to the ‘Bafarasai’, a breakaway gang of the Boko Haram gang, which is trying to seize control of the area.
When asked about the public perception of the killings, Brenda Muridili said that locals “know what they know, but the investigation is not corroborating what they know.”
The police probe is ongoing.
