The police yesterday arrested a man suspected to be the triggerman in the murder of Sophia bread vendor, Andre Alexander, one day after a twenty-year-old man was charged with the crime.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum yesterday informed Stabroek News that the suspect was arrested in Sophia. He remained in custody up to last evening and is said to be co-operating with the police.
Alexander, known as ‘Alex’ and ‘Bread Man,’ 42, a father of two of Lot 394 Section C, Sophia, succumbed on May 5, hours after he was shot once to his stomach by one of two bandits, who posed as customers and held him at gunpoint.
Reports had revealed that 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.
Beverly Best-Alexander, the victim’s wife, was assisting him in the shop when the attack occurred but she managed to escape.
On Tuesday, Shaquille Grant a former member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) of 345 Section ‘B’ Turkeyen and was charged with Alexander’s murder.
He appeared before Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court and was not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that on May 5, at ‘C’ Field, Sophia, he along with another murdered Alexander in the course of or furtherance of a robbery.
The matter was adjourned to June 8.
In a statement on Tuesday, the army had said that Grant had been dismissed on May 5th.
