The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunmedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has extended condolences to the family of murdered Royal Bahamas Defence Force Petty Officer Philip Perpall, calling the incident a terrible tragedy.

The prime minister also urged the church to pray for the soul of the marine and for his loved ones.

“I offer my condolences also to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. I also ask you to pray for the other members of the force who witnessed the killing of a fellow officer,” Dr Minnis said in remarks to attendees of Voice of Deliverance Ministries’ 37th annual general assembly at the church on Monday night.

“This is a terrible tragedy. Let us continue to pray for peace in our land and for all of those who are victims of crime and for their families,” he continued.

According to National Security Minister Marvin Dames, the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s investigation into the killing is progressing and officers should be coming to the public in short order.

He also said police were speaking to a number of people in connection with the incident, when asked if anyone was still in custody.

On Sunday during a press briefing, Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson said a person of interest was assisting police with investigations.

At that same briefing, Mr Dames said officials were looking at establishing a body separate from police to look into changes that needed to be made to enhance security measures.

He was asked yesterday when this would come into effect, but gave no sure date.

PO Perpall was shot multiple times by a lone assailant in the guard room as he took a break with other marines around 2.30am Sunday and died on the scene.

“As a government when we came into office one of the things that we recognised given the world that we are living in today and we see what is taking place all around us, security as it relates to government buildings in particular in many of our countries have not been robust enough,” the minister told reporters yesterday.

“So one of the things that we recognise is that we have to change this and so I’ve had a team working on a policy in relation to security at government buildings to ensure we bring the requisite security that is needed to protect these buildings to the forefront and they have not yet completed their work, but should be completing their work shortly and so we should be bringing that to the fore real shortly.

“After having said that, immediately following this incident I would have met with the commissioner of police as well as the commodore of the defence force. The defence force has the responsibility for the protection of all government buildings and I had directed the commodore with immediate affect to do an immediate assessment of key government structures throughout the country and apply whatever resources needed to ensure that we don’t have a recurrence of an incident like this.”

He also responded to Progressive Liberal Party Leader Philip “Brave” Davis’ criticism that PO Perpall’s death calls into question security at all government buildings in the capital and those on Family Islands where diplomats are stationed.

“Well last time I checked they were the government about two years ago, what have they done?

“As I said before we have been taking measures to ensure that we put a permanent fix in place to ensure that Bahamians as well as visitors alike are safe. The leader of the opposition now has become an expert on security but during their tenure two years ago we had the bloodiest period in the history of this country and so he is no expert on giving advice in that regard.”

“Just yesterday I had an opportunity to spend some time with the family. This family is no stranger to me. As a matter of fact the deceased is the brother of my brother-in-law, the deceased’s brother is married to my sister. I know this family and so our hearts go out to them.

“I don’t want to get into any political wrangling over this,” Mr Dames also said.