A drinker has taken offence to a fellow drinker lighting up a cigarette in a pub and went to extreme measures to stop him - he shot the smoker in the head, killing him.
The dispute between the 50-year-old gunman and the
35-year-old smoker broke out at the Flash Road Bar in Kwartel Street, Birch Acres, Kempton Park, on Saturday night.
Superintendent Eugene Opperman, police spokesperson for the North Rand, confirmed that the irate suspect had been incensed by smoking in the pub. He then had pulled out a pistol and fired a shot into the smoker's head during a quarrel.
"It seems like the whole argument was entirely about smoking," Opperman said.
An eyewitness, who asked not to be identified, described the shooting as a frightening, unbelievable ordeal.
"You don't think something like that can happen so fast. In the blink of an eye the shot went off, and next thing a guy's lying there dead."
The woman said she had pulled up in front of the roadhouse in Flash Road to get some food.
There was a small pub on the premises where people could order drinks, eat their food and smoke.
"As I arrived, I saw this big white guy and a small young black guy arguing.
"The big guy slapped the young guy and then climbed into his bakkie," said the woman.
The young man's female companion tried to pull him back into the pub, but he yelled at her to leave him alone.
"Next thing the big guy puts his head out his bakkie and yells 'Wat sê jy? Jy gaan my doodmaak? Ek gaan jou doodmaak. (What do you say? You want to kill me? I'll kill you.)
"Then he climbs out, walks up to the other guy and shoots him in the head.
"It was horrifying. I've never seen anything like that."
The woman who witnessed the incident sat still in her car. The gunman then approached her, told her in Afrikaans that his life had been in danger, and then stood around, apparently waiting for the police to arrive.
"I later heard from a waiter that the argument had started inside the pub and was all about a cigarette," said the woman.
She said the dead man's hysterical girlfriend was taken away by ambulance.
Police said on Monday that the identity of the dead man could not yet be released as his next of kin had not been traced.
A 50-year-old suspect will appear in court soon on charges of murder. A firearm has been seized.