Usher complained to the Magistrate, Mrs. Dorothy Flowers, that he was feeling pain in his right hand and his left foot is swollen. He said his hand and foot were injured when he was beaten by the police while in custody. She ordered that he be taken to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for observation and, if necessary, treatment.

According to an eyewitness report, Blanco was attacked by two men, one of them armed with a pistol, while he was riding his bicycle on Fabers Road and was about 100 yards from its junction with Caesar Ridge Road. The men apparently ambushed Blanco from Cumberbatch Field.

The gunman shot Blanco in his head and he fell off his bicycle into a water-filled concrete drain. After he fell, the gunman stood over and fired 3 more shots, one of which struck him in his arm, another hitting him in the head.

Police say they have the 9-millimetre pistol that was stolen from Blanco, which they believe was the object of the robbery, and they have found what they believed was the murder weapon.

Anchor Security supervisor Joseph Hemsley told Amandala that at about 9:30 yesterday morning, Blanco, who was stationed at Western Union on Regent Street, called him and asked permission to go home and check on a report of a burglary at his house. Hemsley said Blanco told him that he was informed of the burglary by telephone. Apparently, the burglary report was just a ploy used by Blanco?s assailants to get him to go home.

Blanco had already gone to his house, located on Freedom Street, and was returning to Western Union when the shooting occurred.

One of his neighbours, a housewife, recalled seeing him standing by the door of his house, which had a padlock on it, about 10:00 yesterday morning. She said she thought it unusual for him to be home so early and she mentioned it to him, but he did not say anything. By the time she went inside her house and came back out, Blanco was gone, said the neighbor. Shortly after that she heard sirens, but she did not know that Blanco had been killed, she said.

Hemsley said Blanco should not have taken the pistol with him when he went to investigate the alleged burglary. The gun was Anchor Security issue.

?He was supposed to leave the gun with the security guard who was working with him at Western Union,? said Hemsley.

Hemsley explained that it is standard procedure for security guards of Anchor Security, who are issued firearms at their workplace, to hand them in if they have to leave their workplace, for whatever reason. But, of course, Blanco was leaving work to investigate what he thought to be a dangerous emergency at his home.

Blanco arrived at Western Union at 7:00 Wednesday morning and he was to work until 7:00 p.m. He had been working with the firm for about one year.