By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
The Grand jurry of Grand Bassa County, Republic of Liberia upon their oath have indicted two of the Defendants, who admitted participating in shooting of German National Juergen Scheidmann in an armed raid in Buchanan City, Grand Bassa County on January 22, 2020.
While few other suspects are still on the run, the two defendants were indicted for the crimes of murder and arm robbery. Those indicted are Joseph Cole Alias Joe Cole and Emmanuel Kollie.
Other Defendants to be identified are Shakabon Doe, James Kollie AKA Depree, Emmanuel AKA sunny boy and Francis Willie.
According to the indictment drew by state lawyers headed by Assistant Minister Wesseh A. Wesseh that on January 22,2020 during the intervening hour of 11:45pm in port City of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, the within name defendants did purposely, willfully, knowingly, wickedly, intentionally, recklessly and criminally under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life killed decedent Juergen Scheidmann a German National when they broke into the log’s yard of the International Consultant Capital (ICC), a business entity engaged in logging activities in Liberia.
After shooting the German man, they took the deceased to the back of the log yard and shot him in his stomach and under his both arms with single barrel.
According to the indictment, the criminal act of the Defendants took place during date and time mentioned Supra after they the Defendants gained access into the company’s logging compound and began to shot at randomly and positioned themselves in separate groups; with another group holding at gun point and some private security personnel assigned at the company’s facilities. Another group of armed men broke into several containers used by staffs of the company as dwelling houses.
The Defendants’ indictment further stated that these arm men then began to ransack the dwelling homes of the staffs and took away several valuable items and at the same time rounding up some senior staffs of the entity, then commanded and put the deceased at gun point to the back of the compound and demanded money from him before shooting him in his stomach and under his arm before they fled the scene.
It also says that after the gunmen fled the scene, the employees and other senior staffs began to account for one another and began to point when they couldn’t find the deceased, and they launched a vigorous search to locate the deceased. The German national was found lying in a pool of blood at the back of the compound with several single barrel wounds in his stomach and under his arms.
It was also established that the Defendants discharged about nineteen single barrel pallets along with three empty single barrel shell before escaping the crime scene.
Furthermore, when the deceased was shut, he was taken to the Liberian government hospital where he was pronounced dead by the health authorities and his remains was transferred to the A.B. Roberts funeral home in Monrovia.
Police forensic and homicide investigators physically examined the body at the funeral home where they observed several single barrel wounds both in his stomach and under his arms.
The Defendants made away a total amount of 13,777.00 United States dollar which includes laptops, three iPhones and several other valuable materials but it was firstly reported in the news that the Defendants didn’t take anything away and this record showed many items that were taken away by the Defendants.
State lawyers filed a thirty-eight counts indictment against the Defendants, pending trial in this February term of Court.