The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

POLICE Commissioner Ellison Greenslade said yesterday that gang activity and “hit men” accounted for a majority of the murders in 2012.

According to statistics, there were 111 murders last year, a decrease of 13 per cent compared to 2011. Commissioner Greenslade attributed this decrease to many of these “hit men”, either being killed or arrested. He said there are far too many young men in the Bahamas willing to take another person’s life for money.

“I am not going to give any particular credit to any unofficial grouping that wishes notoriety, but what I am prepared to tell you is, we have unemployed adult males in the Bahamas who would not hesitate to take an illegal gun and pull the trigger and kill someone that they don’t even know and you may refer to that person as a ’hit person’ or ’hit man’. Thankfully due to the support of the public and the hard work of police officers, we were able, during 2012,  to arrest several of those persons and thankfully we were able to keep them incarcerated,” he said.

“Because of the sensitivity I cannot give you all the details, but what I can say is this: We would have received a report, let’s use the month of April in 2012, that someone was murdered. We pick up a suspect with a name, the suspect is charged. Two or three months later that suspect is now on our list as a victim and we have another perpetrator arrested for killing that suspect. so that first file is not finito. That won’t go to trial because the person who is accused is now dead so the file now is taken out of the system. The second perpetrator, when we move to November, turns up on our list as a victim and the two persons that he murdered those files are pulled from the system.”

Mr Greenslade said too many adult males in the Bahamas would take the life of another person and go home and sleep comfortably. He urged young men not to idolize these men and to turn away from a life of crime.

“What we are asking our young men to do,” he said, “is not to look at those people as heroes because the evidence will clearly show that the lifespan for people like that is not very long. It is unfortunate, but it is a statement of fact. We are going to keep looking for these prolific offenders, we will turn over every stone and knock on every door. We are going to stop this carnage, firmly, but professionally.”

The Commissioner is urging members of the public to turn in people who they know are committing these crimes.