The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating after a man was found dead on Faith Avenue South on Friday.

The victim was found before 5am in the area of Anatol Rodgers High School with apparent gunshot wounds.

According to police, the deceased has not been identified as yet. This incident brings the country's murder count to 18, according to this newspaper’s records.

Four days earlier, two men were shot dead on Fox Hill Park, including a man that police said was on bail accused of six murders.

Chief Supt Johnson told reporters on the scene that sometime around 8.45pm on Monday, police received information of gunshots being discharged in the area of the park in Fox Hill.

“When the officers arrived on the scene, they met the lifeless bodies of two individuals, two males that were just north of the park. EMS was called, examined the bodies and found no signs of life,” he said.

He added: “The basic information that we have thus far is that these two persons were in this area conversing when two males came from the rear of a trailer that is just north of the Jungle Club.

“One of these males was armed with a high-powered weapon. They approached these individuals and opened fire - shooting them multiple times about the body.”

Earlier this month, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said he intends to keep the country’s murder count below 100 this year. He made the same pledge last year, however, the figure climbed by eight percent in 2022 which recorded a total of 128 incidents. During the same period in 2021, police recorded 119 murders.

“We are still challenged with murder cases, which increased in 2022. There were 22 murders in March 2022, which represents the highest number of homicides ever recorded for a single month in the history of the Bahamas,” the commissioner said earlier this month.

“We cannot afford to ever repeat this tragedy, the bloodiest month in history. Our goal is to hold the line and reduce the overall number of homicides for 2023 to double digits. We want to stem the fear of crime and this starts now.”

When asked by the media about the target number for this year’s murder count, Commissioner Fernander was unable to say.

“I don’t have no number in mind. I wish it could have been, you know, at a zero,” he said. “But we see what is happening, and we are trying to stop that trend.”