ALLIANCE Investment Manager Arnie Francis and his wife were reportedly ambushed by a gunman Thursday night just outside their Mona, St Andrew house.

The 50-year-old had just arrived home from church.

According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Corporate Communications Unit, about 9:25 pm Francis was entering his premises when he and his wife were pounced on by a gunman who opened fire at them before escaping. Residents heard the explosions and summoned the police.

When the police arrived at the location, Francis was seen with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body and his wife had a wound to her leg. They were taken to hospital where Francis later succumbed to his injuries.

When the Jamaica Observer visited Francis’s home yesterday, Pastor Nicholas Stewart, who said he had seen Francis minutes before he left for home after a men’s meeting at their church, said his friend’s murder left him dumbfounded.

“He’s a kind gentleman; a good man. Right now me cyaah understand in all honesty. I don’t know what this is, because this is one of the persons in the country that you would like to have more of in your country,” Stewart said. “So this shooting is really mind-blowing, I am telling you the truth. If you look around you see a lot of vehicles here, not only the police, but a lot of people — church people.

“Before you came, probably more vehicles were here, and a lot of well-wishers coming to visit his wife, who is not taking his death well,” Stewart said.

The pastor explained that he was at home Thursday night when his wife suggested that they pray for Francis, who was also a pastor.

“I was wondering why because I had just left him at church, only to find out that he was brutally attacked, he and his wife, right at the front of his house,” he said.

Stewart, said he knew Francis for years.

“He’s very good at singing. The last time we actually saw him very active in church was Sunday, because we had our convention on Sunday and he was leading the worship.

“Funny enough he was singing ‘I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord’; unfortunately, he succumbed to the attack.

“I tell you, talk about the man, he’s a good leader; he’s a good man, good manager, you understand? This is a sad occasion for the Apostolic church, for the Mona community, for the Waterhouse community, because that’s where he’s from. I actually live in his house,” Stewart said, adding that when he got married Francis offered him his house.

For 24-year-old Matthew Lewis, one of Francis’s church colleagues, life will never be the same.

“Every Sunday mi see him. Sometimes we have family meetings and we come up here and we chill,” a teary-eyed Lewis said.

Remembering the type of person Francis was, Lewis said: “He loved to sing, he was a good singer. Him full a energy. When mi say full a energy, the man full a energy. You come a church and he’s at church, if the church feel dead, him wake up everybody.”

He also explained that Francis’s love for music propelled him to learn to play the keyboard.

Lewis, who was on his way home when he was told that Francis had been shot, said he did not know what to do. According to the 24-year-old, Francis was the one who helped him to acquire his first car.

Similar sentiments were echoed by one of Francis’s co-workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity when the Observer visited Alliance Investment Management Limited’s New Kingston offices yesterday.

The police are yet to establish a motive.