The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE sister of a man who was shot dead in Nassau Village on Tuesday says the family is struggling to come to grips with his death, insisting he was not a “gang-banger”.

According to initial police reports, Vincent Knowles Jr, 26, was fatally wounded during a drive-by shooting as he was walking on Forbes Street around 8.30pm.

The victim’s sister, Cassandra Knowles, said this is another blow for her family which is still grieving the death of their mother.

“I just (lost) my mummy two years ago,” she told this newspaper. “It feels like the bandage on me just ripped open and they just juck a knife in it and just drag it down.”

She is puzzled about why her brother was killed.

“He don’t bother with nobody. He don’t gang-bang. He don’t keep company. I don’t understand. I don’t know where it gone wrong to be honest,” she told The Tribune yesterday. “I can’t believe he gone. I ain’t sleep at all last night.”

Police said the shooter was in a small Japanese vehicle which stopped at the intersection of Forbes Street and Lawson Avenue.

“A male exited the vehicle armed with a firearm and discharged it in the direction of the victim who was walking north along Forbes Street,” police said.

Ms Knowles said when she received a call about her brother, she did not want to believe the worst.

“I didn’t want it to be true and coming here I was praying that it wasn’t true but unfortunately it was,” she said.

“By the time I reach, the ambulance and stuff was here. As soon as I pulled up they were throwing the sheet over him. So you know that mean, they throwing the sheet over you – that means you gone.”

She said about 30 minutes before getting the news about her brother being shot, she had sent him a text about a job opportunity. She said Knowles Jr was out of work and trying to better himself and she was helping him with his resumé.

“The airport was hiring. I said I just need your resumé and we could drop it off. He gave me the schools he been to and the year for me to put on his resumé. That’s what we were talking about for him to work.”

She described him as a humble man who was loved by his sisters. Despite him being described as a person who kept to himself, his sister said he was helpful in the community based on what she had heard.

“I heard that he would get up early in the morning. He would rake the neighbour’s yard, rake my daddy yard. Across the road is a shop, he would rake their yard and he don’t ask them for nothing. He just gets up and do it,” she said.

Tuesday’s shooting came hours after Minister of National Security Marvin Dames expressed confidence that the police force can maintain law and order amid a spate of gun violence and fears of a gang war.

Asked by a reporter about concerns of a “gang war” in retaliation for the shooting death of a man killed off Kemp Road last week, Mr Dames said: “I’m certain the commissioner of police and his officers have that or anything else related to (those concerns) in hand.

“Listen, this is the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) is charged with the business of maintaining law and order and they take that very seriously.

“...The police have a very robust intelligence arm. They have tremendous response capability and I have no concern about their ability to maintain law and order in this country,” Mr Dames said.

Anyone with information on this shooting should call police at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS (8477).