The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

WITH three weeks left until the end of the year, Grand Bahama has already recorded 18 homicides, one more than the total the island saw in 2015.

That number could be surpassed before 2017 rolls in, creating a new record high for the nation’s second city.

According to statistics from police, Grand Bahama had ten murders in 2014 and five in 2013.

As the yuletide season approaches, police are expected to increase their presence on the streets in an effort to clamp down on criminal activity.

Despite the numbers, the island is relatively safe and the police said they have solved 90 per cent of the murders committed this year and have got dangerous criminals off the streets.

Tragically, 17 men and one woman lost their lives to violence in Grand Bahama this year.

The most recent killing took place on December 4 when police discovered the body of a man in a car at the Imperial Gardens Apartment complex on Tangelo Lane, Freeport.

The victim, 24-year-old Dominique Munnings, had been discovered stabbed to death around 10am in a grey-coloured sedan car. He was pronounced dead at the scene by doctors.

On December 3, around 3am, Kasson Flowers, 21, was shot to death outside an establishment on East Mall Drive, near the International Bazaar.

Flowers had just left the establishment and was in the parking lot when a gunman opened fire on him. A week later, another man was stabbed outside the same establishment, but survived his injuries after being rushed by private vehicle to hospital.

The deaths were the island’s 17th and 18th murders, respectively.

On November 22, Dwayne Jackson, a harbour employee, was found murdered in his apartment at Maxim Court Apartments off Ponce de Leon Drive in Freeport. His death was the 16th murder of the year.

A 19-year-old, Naki Roberts, has been charged with Jackson’s murder.

The island recorded its 14th and 15th murders on November 4 when police were called to the scene of a double homicide in East End, Grand Bahama.

Two brothers – Carlton and Carlos Hamilton - were gunned down and three others were injured at the public cemetery in McLean’s Town.

When contacted on Monday for his views on the murders, former FNM Senator Michael Pintard, a well-known resident of Grand Bahama, expressed concern about the high murder rate in Grand Bahama, as well as the need for more youth programmes, and transforming of inner city neighbourhoods.

“With respect to the high murder rate in Grand Bahama, 18 would have tied the largest number of homicides in the history of Grand Bahama,” he said.

“We need…to once and for all eliminate habitats that breed criminality. Some neighbourhoods have become incubators producing young men and women whose mindset and values are skewed - who see criminality as normal behaviour,” he said.

“You can’t expect to transform people’s mind and behaviour, but leave the environments untouched that are contributing to that. It is inexcusable that we are not prepared to transform some of these neighbourhoods that are, unfortunately, the site for many murders, and the place from which many victims or murderers come,” he said.

Mr Pintard noted that less than two blocks away from the two government complexes and the Grand Bahama Port Authority buildings are habitats that continue to flourish.

“They are not producing the results we desire, and we owe it to the children who live there and parents who cannot do better to transform those neighbourhoods.”

“We have to engage residents, landlords, and be prepared as leaders to take some risk in remedying this awful urban challenge we have creating habitats that are breeding criminals,” he said.

There has also been concern about the presence of gang violence in Freeport.

Mr Pintard noted that youth programmes such as Reach Out Ministry founded by Dudley Seide, Leadership Training Programme by former FNM Cabinet minister Zhivargo Laing, and Boys to Men group at the Tabernacle Baptist Church are doing a great job with transforming youth.

“We need to adequately fund organisations that have a proven track record of reaching people and growing males and females into wonderful men and women,” he said.

Mr Pintard said the country needs to establish youth programmes that target young people between the ages of 17 and 29.

“Many young people are not attached to a uniformed organisation after graduation….there has to be ongoing interaction positively directing them whether it is through apprenticeship programmes, sporting and social initiatives,” he said.

“There is an absence of representatives having meaningful relationship with constituents beyond the politicking season. And in the absence of employment, and positive social engagements, young people are likely to get themselves in a wide range of problems,” he said.