MURDER accused Dwayne Alcox was yesterday shot dead while he sat in a public passenger bus in Bull Bay, St Andrew, robbing him of the chance to plead his murder case before the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston later in the day.

Alcox, alias ‘Spragga’, an electrician of an Eleven Miles, Bull Bay, who was out on bail on a 2004 murder charge, was sitting in a white Toyota Hiace public passenger bus at the intersection of Biscayne Avenue and the Bull Bay main road when an armed man walked up to the minivan and fired several shots. He was shot twice in the head and died on the spot.

The driver of the bus was also shot and injured, the police said.

Alcox, 37, was charged with the April 2004 gun murder of Anthony “Chuncie” Folkes, who was slain while he was overseeing the distribution of Easter Buns.

The murder of Folkes, who was said to be an influential community leader, sparked an upsurge of crime in Arnett Gardens, a tough South St Andrew community that has for decades supported the ruling People’s National Party.

The violence, which saw opposing gangs fighting for turf for more that two years, left more than 100 dead and caused the police countless headaches as armed thugs ran amok in the community.

Alcox, the police said, was one of the major players in the violence that operated from a section of the community known as ‘Angola’.

“He was a very dangerous criminal,” one cop said yesterday.

With the concern of the police, it was not clear then why Alcox was allowed to be out on bail.

Yesterday as Alcox’s mother held her head and wept at the sight of her child lying dead, other onlookers described him as a known troublemaker.