RALPH BAN­WARIE

A man from Va­len­cia ap­peared in court yes­ter­day charged with mur­der and oth­er gun-re­lat­ed of­fences.

Keon Fran­cis, a 21-year-old me­chan­ic of Gill Street, ap­peared be­fore Se­nior Mag­is­trate De­bra Quin­tyne in the San­gre Grande First Mag­is­tartes Court yes­ter­day where he was re­mand­ed in­to prison cus­tody af­ter the charges were read to him.

He is charged with the mur­der of An­dre Cruick­shank, aka “Zion”, in ad­di­tion to the pos­ses­sion of firearm and pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion and three of­fences of shoot­ing with in­tent against the vic­tim’s friend.

Po­lice re­port­ed that on De­cem­ber 14, Cruick­shank, 31, a PH dri­ver, of Flam­boy­ant Cres­cent, Va­len­cia was lim­ing with a group of friends at a Bar at Quar­ry Road Va­len­cia, when a masked man rid­ing on a bi­cy­cle ap­proach them.

The as­sailant whipped out a gun and fired at the group. Fran­cis re­ceived sev­er­al gun­shot wounds to his neck and was rushed to the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal where he re­mained ward­ed for one month af­ter which he suc­cumbed to his in­juries.

His friends es­caped un­harmed.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions were su­per­vised by In­sp Shaun Craig, In­sp Christo­pher Pren­tice and Sgt. An­drew Stan­is­ford, all of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Re­gion 2. The charges were laid by Sgt An­tho­ny Pierre of Va­len­cia Po­lice Post, fol­low­ing in­struc­tions from the Deputy Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tion Joan Hon­ore-Paul on Mon­day.

Fran­cis will reap­pear in court on April 11.