The Liberia National Police (LNP) have arrested a man suspected of being the main killer of a German national in his company’s compound near Buchanan City, Grand Bassa County. The murder occurred one year ago.
Suspect James Kollie, alias “Depree”, was arrested n the Mount Barclay Community outside Monrovia along with his girlfriend.
Police Inspector General Patrick Sudue announced the latest arrest in a briefing to Journalists in Monrovia on Friday.
But suspect Kollie has told journalists that he wasn’t involved in the killing, describing the accusation against him as false.
The German man, Juergen Schedema, Manager of the International Consultant Company (ICC), was discovered dead early Wednesday, January 22, 2020, at his logging company compound, which is located in Big Joe Town – more than a mile away from the port city of Buchanan, which is 88 miles from Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.
After the killing of the German last year, Police arrested, charged and sent to court two suspects, who admitted that they participated in the killing of a German National on January 22,2020, as six of the other armed men were still on the run.
The two suspects were charged with murder; Emmanuel Kollie and Joseph Cole.
Murder is a first degree felony, a capital offense, and a violation of Chapter 14 section 14.6 of the new penal law of the Republic of Liberia.
Last year, Police IG Sudue disclosed that out of eight armed men who raided the German citizen’s company, two have been charged and forwarded to court awaiting trial, while the other six are in Monrovia. The police are due to launch a vigorous pursuit of the perpetrators. If they cannot be found, the Liberian police chief said their photos will be placed at various locations and they will be declared wanted.
According to the Liberia National Police Inspector General, Patrick Sudue, suspect Joseph Cole admitted he fired at the German National. But Cole claimed that it was not their intention to kill him, because they can go on their normal arm robbery hustle without killing anyone.
According to eyewitness Saah P-Early, one of the security officers on duty disclosed that about 1:30 am, the armed robbers, wearing masks, trooped into the logging company compound in Big Joe town. They came from the back of the company, entered into the building and tied up the four security officers who were at the front gate. They then took them into a room along with some other staff of the company.
Witness Early said they were taken into the room by the robbers. They locked the door on them from outside; but luckily for them, one of the staffers had a spare key for the door, which they locked inside for their own protection.
The armed men then went in search of the General Manager Schedema.
They busted his door and window, dragged him out of his bedroom and shot him on his left side and in his lower stomach. They later moved his lifeless body near an outside bathroom within the company’s facility.
Eyewitness accounts also showed that the robbers were only after the manager and did not touch any of the staff.
The killing of the German national last year also sparked reaction from President George Manneh Weah, who said his government would do all in its reach to arrest and prosecute ‘armed robbers suspected of killing a German expatriate on January 22, 2020 in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, about 88 miles from the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
A statement on the Executive Mansion website last year said President Weah “extends his deepest condolences to the government and people of the Federal Republic of Germany for the brutal murder”.
He said police were working with local authorities to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice.
