THE preliminary inquiry (PI) into the murder charge against the men accused of killing cattle farmer Shafeek Bacchus outside his Princes Street, Lodge home, resumed yesterday, with two more policemen testifying.
Chief Magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen took depositions from Sergeant Eon Jackson and Detective Inspector Lloyd Fraser and adjourned the pre-trial proceedings to Wednesday, June 23.
Jackson is stationed at Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters and attached to the Ballistics Section while Fraser was at Alberttown Police Station when the crime was committed.
Both witnesses gave evidence-in-chief and were cross-examined by Defence Counsel Compton Richardson, for ex-policeman Shawn Hinds but other attorney-at-law Mr Vic Puran, representing A&D Funeral Parlour co-owner Ashton King, only questioned Fraser.
The accused Hinds and King are jointly charged with the January 5, 2004 unlawful killing of Bacchus, who was gunned down in a drive-by shooting that triggered still swirling allegations linking Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj to a so-called death squad.
A third accused, Mark Thomas alias ‘Kerzorkee’, former Manager of Auby’s Wine Bar in another part of the capital, died under mysterious circumstances at Georgetown Public Hospital before the allegation was put to him in Court.