Charles Nana Frimpong (middle) after the court hearing
State prosecutors have charged Charles Nana Frimpong, the businessman who allegedly shot and killed an artisan at Alajo mechanic yard in Accra last week with murder.
The accused was earlier charged with an attempted murder when he reportedly shot 33-year-old Richard Yaw Boadi during verbal exchanges over wrong parking.
The victim was rushed to the Ridge Hospital and was receiving treatment until he died on Thursday.
In the autopsy report, the artisan’s right kidney and colon were removed because they were badly damaged by stray bullet.
During Frimpong’s second appearance in court yesterday, the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Hanson Armah, said the prosecution would wish to substitute the old charge sheet with a new one (murder) – a request the judge, Ms. Victoria Guansah, granted.
According to C/Insp. Armah, on August 8 at the Alajo railway crossing, the accused murdered one Richard Yaw Boadi, a mechanic.
He said one Dr. Dadzie informed the police that the victim had passed on at the hospital where he was receiving treatment
Paul Asibi Abariga, lawyer for Nana Frimpong, while expressing his condolence to the bereaved family, said the defence was amenable to whatever the prosecution would do.
He said the prosecution had not yet given the defence team a copy of the charge sheet.
Mr Abariga further informed the court that his client had complained of pains and prayed the court to give an order for the accused person to be given medical care.
C/Insp. Armah requested that the remand warrant of the accused person be changed from police to prison.
But Mr Asibi wondered if it would not be easy and better for the police to have the accused in their custody, especially when investigation was still ongoing.
The trial magistrate ruled in favour of the prosecution and remanded Charles into prison custody until August 30, 2017, when hearing would continue.
The 34-year-old mechanic was killed when he reportedly attempted to separate a fight between the accused and a ‘trotro’ driver.
According to reports, Charles, in the course of the fight, shot into the crowd, hitting Yaw Boadi in the abdomen.
After firing the gun, Frimpong allegedly locked himself in his car for fear of being lynched by the incensed mob until the Tesano police arrived at the scene.
The unidentified Sprinter bus driver was reportedly returning from a mechanic shop close to the Alajo rail line while Charles was also heading towards another mechanic shop on the same single and narrow road used by all vehicles.
The accused, who was driving a Hyundai Elantra with registration number GS 190-16, was said to have parked in the middle of the road, thus blocking other motorists.
The Sprinter driver, who was returning from the opposite direction where the accused had parked his car, allegedly shouted at him to move his car since he had blocked the road.
This did not go down well with Charles and so there were heated verbal exchanges.
Both the trotro driver and Nana Frimpong reportedly came out of their vehicles to attack each other.
Some traders, mechanics, taxi drivers and commuters, who witnessed the incident, moved to separate the two men.
In the process, Charles purportedly pulled a gun from the car and fired shots sporadically.
Yaw Boadi was hit by stray bullet in the course of the melee.
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson