Gun was found by roadside after police chased suspects, jury told
Police searched a roadside after two shooting suspects allegedly jumped a night-time roadblock, but found nothing, a jury heard.However, a gun was found by the side of the same road later the same morning, after daylight broke.The evidence came from police witnesses who testified yesterday in the trial of Jahmel Blakeney, 30, and Sanchey Grant, 20, who are accused of a double shooting.Teacher Renee Kuchler and her footballer boyfriend Shaki Minors were seriously injured when they were shot multiple times as they left the Southside Cinema in St David’s around 11.30pm on November 13 2009.Mr Minors has given evidence that he had links to the 42 “crew” and believes he may have been shot as a result of that. Mr Blakeney, the alleged mastermind of the shooting, and Mr Grant, the alleged gunman, were said by Mr Minors to be members of the rival group, Parkside.The jury has heard evidence from police officers that Mr Blakeney sped in a jeep through a police roadblock set up at the Double Dip roundabout in St David’s to catch the shooting suspects. Mr Grant was found hiding in the passenger seat when the vehicle eventually stopped.Yesterday, Pc Colin Mill explained that after the men had been chased by police and arrested, “I had an intuition that something had been thrown from the vehicle. It was a gut instinct, so I called police operations and asked them to dispatch a dog unit.”Pc Mill explained the reason he had this feeling was “just from the vehicle accelerating hard after being asked to stop by the police and eventually stopping. In my opinion, the whole reason they would stop after this short chase would be if something was thrown from the vehicle”.He rode up the road on his police motorbike and checked it with his headlights, but found nothing.His police colleague Ascensius Jean Baptiste arrived at the scene with his dog, Ruddie, who is trained to sniff out drugs and firearms.They searched an area along the perimeter fence of the airport but found nothing.The jury heard from Mr Blakeney’s defence lawyer, Charles Richardson, that a firearm was found on the same road the following morning after daylight came.Mr Richardson quizzed Pc Baptiste over why he only searched partway along the road and not the whole length of it. He replied: “It’s a fair distance. The search is too long with the dog. You would have to do it in more than one session.”In answer to questions from Mr Grant’s lawyer Jerome Lynch QC, the officer confirmed that he did not continue the search after that.Mr Blakeney and Mr Grant deny attempted murder, gun possession and bullet possession, and the case continues.