Taxi office owner held over shooting incident

THE HEAD of a taxi office has been arrested in connection with the attempted murder of an employee.

Andreas Makris, 65, was remanded in custody for eight days on Sunday, accused of shooting 34-year-old Sophoclis Sophocleous following an argument. The suspect had been arrested on Saturday night.

Requesting the remand, the police investigating officer told Larnaca district court the incident had taken place at approximately 8.55pm on Saturday outside Makris’ Larnaca taxi office.

Sophocleous told police he and Makris had been arguing about the maintenance of a taxi and that he was refusing to remove rubbish from the car’s front seat.

He claims Makris then began swearing at him and said, “Now you’ll see what I’ll do to you,” grabbing a stick and threatening to hit him.

Another driver managed to grab the stick, but the two men continued fighting with their bare hands, falling to the ground. Sophocleous claims he then helped Makris up and that the older man went into the office. The court heard the victim told police that Makris reappeared shortly afterwards, allegedly clutching a shotgun and shouting “I’m going to kill you now.”

Makris then shot Sophocleous twice in the leg with pellets from a distance of three to four metres, police said.

Sophocleous managed to walk to a police station where he told officers he had been shot.

The investigating officer told the court that a search had found pellets at Makris’ home, but not the gun.

Sophocleous was examined by a doctor and had the pellets removed. Police said yesterday he was out of danger.

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