Jones brothers dodge bullets

THE focus of the Police manhunt for sibling murder suspects Ian and Chris Jones shifted south yesterday, following a shooting incident with the brothers at Keetmanshoop on Monday night.

By late yesterday, the two brothers, who escaped from the holding cells at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Lüderitz Street on Monday afternoon, were still on the run. The Police were concentrating on the South in their search for the duo, with senior Police officers flying to Keetmanshoop to help.That was after the brothers – Ian Jones, aged 26, and Chris Jones, about 27 years old – were spotted at a petrol station at Keetmanshoop between 23h00 and 23h20 on Monday, Police spokesman Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu said yesterday.He said the two escapees were still travelling in the green Nissan V6 bakkie, registration number N36706W, that they hijacked at knifepoint from a woman in Windhoek on Monday afternoon.They had apparently been driving on gravel roads before they arrived at the Keetmanshoop filling station – the vehicle and its number plate were covered with dust, according to witnesses.Using a petrol card belonging to the woman from whom they had stolen the bakkie, they filled up the vehicle, Amulungu said.He said a Police officer from Keetmanshoop had fired off a couple of shots – according to another source about five warning shots were fired – but the pair managed to drive off, heading south out of town with their lights off.As a result, it was not clear whether they had turned off to Grünau or continued on the road to Aus and Lüderitz at the intersection of the B4 and B1, Amulungu said.Going south, the brothers may be retracing a route taken by Ian Jones when he fled to South Africa, allegedly via Rosh Pinah, after the murder of Windhoek businessman Gero Schaum on February 14 2002.The two escapees are accused of having killed Schaum.The Joneses were taken from the Windhoek Central Prison to the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Lüderitz Street on Monday to make another appearance in court on a theft charge laid against them in February last year.At the time they had been in custody on still-pending murder, armed robbery, kidnapping and housebreaking charges for a year already.Sources at the court suspect that the duo escaped between 13h00 and 14h00 by unlocking a door that leads from the cells into the building’s C Court.Once in the court, which was empty and locked over the lunch hour, they are thought to have climbed through a window above the court’s entrance door; from there freedom was only a stroll towards Lüderitz Street away.The two escapees were supposed to appear again in the Magistrate’s Court today on the charges that had led to their arrest more than two years ago in connection with the killing of Schaum.It is alleged that the two brothers held Schaum at gunpoint on February 14 2002 after they broke into his house.They allegedly stole a range of items from him, including N$400 000 in cash that Schaum is claimed to have kept in a safe in the house.It is further claimed that after bundling Schaum into the boot of his car they drove off with him and then murdered him in cold blood by shooting him twice in the head in the Brakwater area, where his body was dumped.The murder case against them had been delayed for about a year while the two brothers waited to hear if they would be granted legal aid by the Directorate of Legal Aid.Since April last year, the case has been postponed on another five occasions, each time so that the Prosecutor General could decide on the further prosecution of the brothers and their two co-accused who are claimed to have helped Ian Jones flee to South Africa and to get rid of the weapon with which Schaum was shot.For Ian Jones, today’s appointment in court is still not the last of the week.He is also supposed to be in the dock in the Windhoek Regional Court on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances on Friday.That charge dates from December 2001, when Jones and a co-suspect allegedly attacked a resident of Suiderhof in Windhoek in his home, tied him up and left with his wallet and his vehicle.Police have asked anyone spotting the two brothers to contact their nearest Police station or the Serious Crime Unit’s Detective Chief Inspector Nelius Becker at (cellphone) 081 129 9215, or Detective Inspector Michael Booysen at 081 128 5717.The Police were concentrating on the South in their search for the duo, with senior Police officers flying to Keetmanshoop to help.That was after the brothers – Ian Jones, aged 26, and Chris Jones, about 27 years old – were spotted at a petrol station at Keetmanshoop between 23h00 and 23h20 on Monday, Police spokesman Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu said yesterday.He said the two escapees were still travelling in the green Nissan V6 bakkie, registration number N36706W, that they hijacked at knifepoint from a woman in Windhoek on Monday afternoon.They had apparently been driving on gravel roads before they arrived at the Keetmanshoop filling station – the vehicle and its number plate were covered with dust, according to witnesses.Using a petrol card belonging to the woman from whom they had stolen the bakkie, they filled up the vehicle, Amulungu said.He said a Police officer from Keetmanshoop had fired off a couple of shots – according to another source about five warning shots were fired – but the pair managed to drive off, heading south out of town with their lights off.As a result, it was not clear whether they had turned off to Grünau or continued on the road to Aus and Lüderitz at the intersection of the B4 and B1, Amulungu said.Going south, the brothers may be retracing a route taken by Ian Jones when he fled to South Africa, allegedly via Rosh Pinah, after the murder of Windhoek businessman Gero Schaum on February 14 2002.The two escapees are accused of having killed Schaum.The Joneses were taken from the Windhoek Central Prison to the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Lüderitz Street on Monday to make another appearance in court on a theft charge laid against them in February last year.At the time they had been in custody on still-pending murder, armed robbery, kidnapping and housebreaking charges for a year already.Sources at the court suspect that the duo escaped between 13h00 and 14h00 by unlocking a door that leads from the cells into the building’s C Court.Once in the court, which was empty and locked over the lunch hour, they are thought to have climbed through a window above the court’s entrance door; from there freedom was only a stroll towards Lüderitz Street away.The two escapees were supposed to appear again in the Magistrate’s Court today on the charges that had led to their arrest more than two years ago in connection with the killing of Schaum.It is alleged that the two brothers held Schaum at gunpoint on February 14 2002 after they broke into his house.They allegedly stole a range of items from him, including N$400 000 in cash that Schaum is claimed to have kept in a safe in the house.It is further claimed that after bundling Schaum into the boot of his car they drove off with him and then murdered him in cold blood by shooting him twice in the head in the Brakwater area, where his body was dumped.The murder case against them had been delayed for about a year while the two brothers waited to hear if they would be granted legal aid by the Directorate of Legal Aid.Since April last year, the case has been postponed on another five occasions, each time so that the Prosecutor General could decide on the further prosecution of the brothers and their two co-accused who are claimed to have helped Ian Jones flee to South Africa and to get rid of the weapon with which Schaum was shot.For Ian Jones, today’s appointment in court is still not the last of the week.He is also supposed to be in the dock in the Windhoek Regional Court on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances on Friday.That charge dates from December 2001, when Jones and a co-suspect allegedly attacked a resident of Suiderhof in Windhoek in his home, tied him up and left with his wallet and his vehicle.Police have asked anyone spotting the two brothers to contact their nearest Police station or the Serious Crime Unit’s Detective Chief Inspector Nelius Becker at (cellphone) 081 129 9215, or Detective Inspector Michael Booysen at 081 128 5717.