The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A DAY after police shot and killed a suspected armed robber, National Security Minister Marvin Dames said that, while the incident was unfortunate, criminals will lose when they confront police. 

And after a spate of recent armed robberies in the capital, Mr Dames said officials will be re-adjusting their strategies to crack down on the problem.  “We are having armed robberies continue and as they occur, the police are adjusting their strategy to deal with them, and they have been doing an extremely wonderful job in addressing those issues as you would see,” he told reporters yesterday.

“We had many numbers of persons before the courts over the last few days in connection with the most recent homicides both here in Nassau and Grand Bahama and the same thing applies to the armed robberies. These individuals have been caught but we want to be in a better position to prevent them.

“...The police have been updating me and they have been adjusting their strategies to ensure that they are in a better place where they can prevent most of these incidents. (Monday) was a clear example of that.”

His comments to the press came after police shot and killed one suspect while wounding another after foiling a suspected robbery at Royal Bank of Canada on Monday morning. 

Speaking at the scene, Chief Superintendent Solomon Cash told reporters that after one of the men opened fire on police, officers retaliated by fatally wounding one of the suspected persons, while harming the other.

CSP Cash said a weapon was found on the scene, but no police or civilians were hurt.

This is the second time this month an incident like this occurred. On February 11, police said two men entered Portraits-a-La Sawyers photo studio dressed in white jumpsuits and claiming to be window cleaners.

They then allegedly duct taped the proprietor and a worker and tried to steal a large sum of cash. Police shot and wounded a suspect during the incident.

While noting that it is always “unfortunate” when one loses a life during these incidents, Mr Dames maintained that officers still will not spare any effort to combat crime across the country.

“It’s always unfortunate when someone has to lose their life but it’s a bad proposition as a criminal when you want to confront the police. You’re going to lose that, and we hate to see that happening,” he said.

“But the police have an obligation to protect all of us and to protect innocent people from those persons who are out to cause a mayhem.

“And we just can’t afford to allow that to happen and we’re putting every possible measure in place within the framework in the law to ensure that we keep Bahamians and visitors and the good citizens of this nation safe.”

The minister added that although officials have seen an overall decrease in crime recently, the government is still committed to addressing the crime issue in the country.

“This is not an overnight quick fix thing,” he said. “It took us decades to get here and we hope that it doesn’t have to take us decades to move away from here. We’re already seeing positive results in our overall crime figures over the years and over the last two years, it’s been the lowest in the decade.

“Are we celebrating? We’re far from that. We all recognise that there is a significant amount of work to do, but we won’t be deterred and we’re getting down to business and we’re continuing that work.”

He continued: “And just, a warning to our young men out there that brandishing a weapon does not make you superman and especially when you take it upon yourself to hurt innocent people and to confront law enforcement.

“As I’ve said before, it’s a bad proposition and you’re not going to win that and that’s the last thing that we would want. We hate losing our young men. We’ve lost too many of them already to crime and to violent acts and it’s the last resort that police would want to do.”