The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

DAYS after a spate of murders at Thompson Lane, a 24-hour mobile police station was launched in the area yesterday.

The station was set up with the intention of allaying the fears of members of the community after the recent killings.

Officer-in-charge of the Southern Division CSP Demeritte said officers hope to bring calm to the community. “We’re not going to allow just a handful of thugs to just come and put the fear of crime in this community so we’re here today and we’re going to be all over New Providence. We’ve teamed up with our neighbourhood police, our community police officers as well as officers from the drug enforcement unit and other law enforcement partners to just bring the fear of crime down in our communities,” CSP Demeritte said.

Supt Audley Peters said mobile units will go to other areas as needed.

“We have a number of these units in place. At the moment, this unit is going to be placed here at Thompson Lane and if another area warrants one we will place that unit at that area. But, however, we have officers who (are) out and about on the streets conducting the various stop and searches.”

“If you would’ve (driven) into this community, you would find that a certain number of corridors that are into this community and those corridors are being tactfully manned with the intention of controlling and monitoring individuals who may be having an interest of coming into this area.”

Community resident Caroline Rahming said she feels much safer with the mobile station in place.

“The police were working very hard. They’re doing their best and I really appreciate it because when the incident happened on Saturday children were around and … I could’ve gotten hurt myself, but they’re doing an excellent job,” the 47-year-old told The Tribune.

Yesterday, Acting Commissioner Fernander said police are following promising leads in all of the recent murders over the past week.

“We have a number of persons in custody at this time and detectives are interviewing all of them at this time,” he said.

Asked when the suspects would be prosecuted, he said: “We have the entire weekend coming with the suspects that we have in custody now and hopefully by Monday we will be able to report some good news.”

Four separate shooting incidents over the weekend left five people dead and two others in hospital in critical condition.

The latest killings took place on Sunday after 6pm on Thompson Lane, less than 24 hours after two other men, one of whom died, were shot on the same street.

On Monday, Mr Fernander said the weekend killings were gang-related and the result of friction over drug turf.