A soldier was yesterday charged with the murder of Sophia bread vendor Andre Alexander, who was fatally shot almost two weeks ago during a robbery.
Guyana Defence Force Private Shaquille Grant, 20, of 345 Section ‘B’ Turkeyen, was not required to plead to the indictable charge of murder when he appeared before Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.
The charge against Grant stated that on May 5, at ‘C’ Field, Sophia, he along with another murdered Alexander in the course or furtherance of a robbery.
According to Police Prosecutor Ayesha Gibbons, on the day in question, at around 8.30 pm, Alexander was at his bread shop with his wife when Grant and another man rode up on a motorcycle, shot him to his chest and relieved him of an undisclosed sum of cash. The men then made good their escape on the motorcycle.
The prosecutor said Alexander was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where
he died while receiving medical attention.
Gibbons told the court that the case file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who has requested a month for a report on it.
Magistrate Ally-Seepaul subsequently remanded Grant to prison until June 8, when the next hearing is scheduled.
Alexander, known as ‘Alex’ and ‘Bread Man,’ 42, a father of two of Lot 394 Section C, Sophia, succumbed hours after he was shot once to his stomach by one of two bandits, who posed as customers and held him at gunpoint.
Two men on a motorcycle pulled up in front of Alexander’s outlet in Sophia and requested three loaves of bread. As he was making change for the $5,000 note the men used to pay him, they held him at gunpoint and demanded he hand over his cash.
The police, in a press release, had said that Alexander refused and was shot. The suspects then relieved him of his cash and they escaped on the motorcycle, discharging several rounds in the process.
