Today in Magistrate’s Court, Egbert Daly, 19, a resident of Antelope Street Extension; Jermaine Zuniga, 31, of Antelope Street Extension; and a 17-year-old minor of Iguana Street all appeared before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer to answer to the single charge of murder for the shooting death of Nigerian taxi driver, Francis Chukwu.
All three were picked up by police and issued their joint charge on December 31, 2010, five days after Chukwu’s death.
In court the police provided a signed statement from the minor. In this statement, the minor allegedly confessed to murdering Chukwu, 37.
In court, the minor said that the only reason he gave that statement was because of police brutality. He claims that the police had been beating him and harassing him for a long period of time since his incarceration, until he finally couldn’t take anymore and confessed to end the brutality. The other two men also claimed police brutality.
No plea was taken and no bail was granted at the Magistrate’s level. All three men have been remanded to prison and the case has been adjourned until February 3, 2010.
As we reported in a previous issue of the Amandala, at 2:50 a.m., Sunday, December 26, 2010, police were called out to Pitter Street, where they found Chukwu, already dead, in his vehicle, leaning over from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat with a gunshot wound in his head.
Chukwu’s car, a blue Ford Escort, had to be retrieved from the drain; it was still in drive mode.
Chukwu was shot in the right side of his head and it seems that the perpetrator’s motive was not robbery, because police had found his valuables still inside his vehicle.
We were told by a reliable source that the last time he was seen alive was a couple hours before his body was discovered; he had provided a taxi ride for two women. It is still unclear what happened after he left to do more work that night.