London police have obtained an arrest warrant for a man charged in the death of an alleged Liberian war criminal that was gunned down at an east-end home.
Keiron Gregory, 22, of North York is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Bill Horace, 44, a former general in the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), a rebel group led by former Liberian president Charles Taylor that fought in the country’s civil war from 1989 to 1996.
Investigators believe Gregory, who may be armed, is in the Greater Toronto Area, police said Thursday, adding no weapons have been recovered.
Horace, who split his time between Toronto and London, where he had a wife and two young sons, was fatally shot after four men forced their way into his family’s home on Pochard Lane, south of Clarke and Gore roads, around 4:40 a.m. on Sunday.
A 2010 Maclean’s article alleged Horace was a general for the NPFL and revealed he was under investigation by Canada’s crimes against humanity and war crimes program.
The report cited witness statements from Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and alleged eyewitness accounts from former associates of Horace accusing him and the men under his command in atrocities including murder, rape and torture. Horace arrived in Canada nearly two decades ago, allegedly using falsified documents, and filed for refugee status and permanent residency.
But he was never charged and the status of the investigation by Canadian authorities remains unknown.
Court documents obtained by The London Free Press trace Horace’s path from his war-torn West African country, where he was a member of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, to Europe and then Canada, where the father of five battled for permanent residency for more than a decade, a process that was still underway when he died. In documents filed in January in a federal court Horace claimed he was a military chaplain during Liberia’s brutal civil war but was ordered to the front lines after a falling-out with a commanding officer.
London police are asking anyone who sees Gregory or knows his whereabouts to contact them immediately at 519-661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
dcarruthers@postmedia.com
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