Three men accused of murdering a police constable have appeared in the Gqeberha High Court, where the state alleged the killing was ordered by gang leaders as reparation for a drug robbery.
Romario Prins, 18, Damian Brooks and Chadwin Visagie, both 28, appeared briefly on Tuesday.
All three remained in custody.
The three asked to be represented by Legal Aid SA ahead of their next appearance.
Prins was identified in court for the first time on Tuesday, having been a minor when Brooks and Visagie first appeared in the Gqeberha Magistrate’s Court last year.
Constable Callan Andrews was shot at close range and robbed of his service pistol in Helenvale on December 31 2024, while pushing a broken-down police vehicle.
He had been stationed at Gelvandale police station for only a few months.
According to the state’s indictment, Andrews had responded to a domestic violence complaint in Voisen Road when the police vehicle failed to start.
He began pushing it himself before children from the community came to help.
The group pushed the vehicle from Voisen Road into Reynders Street and then into Kobus Road, where the road slopes downwards past an area known as The Stoep.
It was there that Andrews was shot.
The state alleged senior figures in a Gqeberha gang, the Nice Time Bozzas, wanted one of its alleged members to make reparation after a rival group robbed one of its drug posts.
It said Brooks instructed one of his co-accused to rob Andrews of his service pistol, and that the firearm was handed to Brooks before the accused fled.
All three face charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, unlawful possession of a firearm with intent to commit an offence, unlawful possession of a semi-automatic firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition.
Brooks faces additional charges of inciting a pattern of criminal gang activity and incitement to commit robbery.
One of his co-accused faces a further charge of money laundering.
The Hawks investigated the killing, with arrests following in January 2025.
Andrews was a second-generation police officer who was patrolling close to where he grew up when he was killed.
He was given an official state funeral.
His father, Warrant Officer Brett Andrews, has blamed SAPS for his son’s death.
Police minister Senzo Mchunu, who is on special leave, told the funeral in January last year that the breakdown of the police vehicle was purely incidental.
The DA in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro has proposed that Kobus Road be renamed in Andrews’s honour.
The case returns to the Gqeberha High Court on August 6.
