They are accused of killing 62-year-old security guard Oliver Blanco for his nine-millimeter gun and tonight police say they have the two ruthless killers and the two guns used in yesterday's broad-daylight murder on Old Faber's Road. This afternoon, 25-year-old Noel Usher joined 26-year-old Edward Arthurs in court where the two were arraigned jointly for murder.
In an investigative coup, CIB investigators also recovered the model P89 Ruger nine-millimeter gun loaded with 9 rounds, which they believe was the murder weapon as well as another Ruger nine millimeter gun, this one a model P95 fully loaded which was stolen from Blanco. Commander of the Criminal Investigations Branch ASP Chester Williams gave us the details.
ASP Chester Williams, C.I.B. Commander
"In relation to the murder of Mr. Blanco which occurred yesterday morning sometime after 10 we conducted further investigation up to last night. It is always my belief that we must try to eat the cake while it is hot. When you allow the cake to cool off, the taste seems to go away. As I mentioned yesterday we have another suspect in custody whose name was not called due to other investigations we were conducting in relation to him.
Nonetheless last night sometime around 9 pm, with the assistance of the community of Yabra, we were able to recover two nine millimeter pistols. One has been positively identified as the firearm that was robbed from Mr. Blanco at the time of his murder and the other one we believe is the murder weapon in connection with the murder of Mr. Blanco. The firearms will be sent to the ballistic expert for testing to confirm the use of the one we believe to be the murder weapon as being the weapon used to kill Mr. Blanco. It will be matched with the expended shells that we recovered from the crime scene to see, yes, this gun fired these expended shells so that will be done between today and tomorrow.
The other person in connection with this incident was one Noel Usher. He has since been arrested and charged jointly along with Edward Arthurs for the murder of Mr. Blanco."
Keith Swift,
Who was the shooter?
ASP Chester Williams,
"From the investigation the shooter was Noel Usher."
Jacqueline Woods, NEWS 5
"Where were the guns found?"
ASP Chester Williams,
"They were found in the Yabra Area underneath a house."
Keith Swift,
What led police to the gun?
ASP Chester Williams,
"Good police work with community effort. Both guys are pretty hardcore criminals. Mr. Arthurs was here last year being questioned for the murder of Trevor Smith which we believed he was the one who killed Trevor Smith but we didn't have the evidence to charge him and he was released and Mr. Usher is a regular also. They are not people who would confess to the police but we don't need a confession from them. We have overwhelming evidence in order to secure a conviction."
Keith Swift,
Who was the mastermind?
ASP Chester Williams,
"At this point in time we believe they both planned the actions and they are their own masterminds."
As ASP Williams mentioned, Usher was questioned for last year's murder of Trevor Smith. He was never charged due to insufficient evidence. Both Usher and Arthurs were denied bail and are tonight at the Hattieville Prison remanded until June 30th.
