Former Attorney-General, Dr Francis Alexis wants Acting Commissioner of Police, Winston James to file criminal charges against a member of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) for the weekend shooting a St Andrew’s resident.

33 year old Jude Jack, a butcher of Paraclete, has retained the legal services of Dr Alexis after he received two bullet wounds on Sunday - one to his abdomen and another to his right toe.

Jack is now a patient at the St. George’s General Hospital nursing his bullet wounds. The incident occurred during a cricket match at the Paraclete Playing Field between Idlers and Pressure Pumpers which ended prematurely as a result of the incident.

According to reports reaching GRENADA TODAY newspaper, the shooting resulted following an altercation between Jack and another spectator, Bernard “Matches” Noel. One eye-witness told this newspaper that Jack was seen with a cutlass hitting a young man all over his body.

He said that a number of plain clothes police officers were on the scene and one of them was heard calling out to Jack to put down the cutlass. He reportedly refused to do so and was seen fleeing the area. Gun shots were heard and spectators started running away from in panic, bringing the cricket game to a premature end.

Dr Alexis told reporters Tuesday that he had written statements from a number of eyewitnesses, indicating that police officer Kenyo Pierre shot his client deliberately and maliciously. He accused the police officer of taking a direct hit at Jack’s body unlike two senior police officers on the scene, Acting Commissioner Winston James and Inspector of Police Earl Dumber who fired shots but not directly at the victim.

He claimed that officer Pierre open fire on the man after the senior officers stopped firing their weapons “Not even in the days of the wild west will a Peace Officer shoot a man running away”, Alexis said.He stated that his client did not only obey the police orders but was actually running away from the scene, and as such there was no need whatsoever to shoot him.

According to Alexis, even after Pierre gunned down Jack, the police officer did not even go to see what happened to him but instead fled the scene. He also called on Acting Commissioner James to provide him with the name of the officer responsible for shooting Jack in the toe and another one who allegedly kicking the injured man while lying on the ground bleeding from the gun shot wound.

Alexis expects the Chief Cop to file charges against the Officer Pierre in addition to the charges he (the lawyer) intends to file against him on behalf of Jack. A police bulletin on the incident said that Jack did not heed the lawmen’s warning during the encounter and started advancing towards them and brandishing the weapon.

“Armed officers fired shots during which he (Jack) got shot, dropped the cutlass and fell to the ground where he was apprehended,” said the report.