The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY two weeks after one senior police official urged persons out on bail for serious crimes “to stay home” or risk the chance of being killed, investigators are searching for two male suspects in a shooting incident that has left a teenage boy, suspected of being out on bail for housebreaking, dead on Saturday.

The incident marked the eighth homicide in a 14-day period.

Several people on bail for various crimes have been victims of murder this month. At least three of them have been killed in the past two weeks according to The Tribune’s records.

According to police, the victim was walking near Peardale Manor, just off Claridge Road, around 9.20am Saturday, when two male occupants of a silver coloured Honda Accord armed with handguns, approached and shot him multiple times about the body before speeding off.

The victim, who The Tribune understands is Tavares Deveaux, was pronounced dead on the scene.

At the time of his death on Saturday, Deveaux was being electronically monitored by police while on bail for a serious offence.

Police are expected to officially identify the deceased later today.

This latest killing takes the country’s murder count to 80 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

Earlier this month, after a man on bail for murder was shot and killed near his home, officer-in-charge of the Central Detective Unit, Chief Superintendent Solomon Cash issued a grim warning.

“I would say it is a privilege to be granted bail and I want to advise those persons who have been granted bail to remain in the confines of their home. That is the best advice I can give them, because if they move about freely they may be targeted and killed,” Chief Supt Cash said previously.

“We continue as we normally do to look at our prolific offenders mainly those out on bail and we monitor them from time to time, but we need the public’s help to solve these crimes. In my opinion, I do not sense a fear factor for normal residents, of course you know that this individual was on bail for murder and from all indications it looks like retaliation. Decent residents who live in these areas need not have the fear, they are safe,” he also said.

However, responding to questions on the warning, National Security Minister Marvin Dames insisted the problem is much bigger than telling persons to stay inside, as he indicated the Minnis administration will be “moving a series of bills through Parliament very shortly” in an effort to “improve the efficiency of justice in the country.”

Mr Dames at the time also revealed that in the short term, the Royal Bahamas Police Force would “increase visibility in hot spots and continue to target prolific offenders.”

A day later, Assistant Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander, flanked by more than a dozen armed officers in the Over-the-Hill area, announced the police force’s new crime fighting strategy, Securing the Inner City Strategically (STICS), which aims to apprehend would be offenders in the act.

Despite the pronouncements however, the scourge of violent crimes and homicides continue.

A man who was “well known to police” was shot multiple times and killed early Friday morning in the area of Mason’s Addition.

The murder took place shortly after 1am.

According to reports, police received a call that a body of a man was found on a track road off Saxon’s Way in Masons Addition.

When officers arrived on the scene, they discovered the lifeless body of a man who appeared to have been shot multiple times.

Emergency Personnel Services (EMS) were called to the scene and pronounced the man dead.

Anyone with information on any homicide or any other crime is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.

Investigations continue.