FROM LEFT: Laverne Cartwright, mother of Travis Cooper; Alfred Bastian, father of Renardo Bastian, Ricardo McKenzie, cousin of Renardo Bastian, and Kendal Lord Sr, father of Kendal Lord. Photos: Donavan McIntosh/Tribune staff
PHA statement
THE Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) has clarified that the National Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) response to the mass shooting on Thursday was executed in line with mass casualty response requirements.
“During an interview on [a local television] show, an allegation was made by a female being interviewed that NEMS neglected to provide assistance to a victim who appeared to be alive when they left the scene,” a statement issued on Sunday noted.
“The following steps as required by National Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) were followed, a scene size up was conducted and back up ambulances were requested.
“Triage took place immediately on arrival of the EMTs to determine viability and order of treatment and transport. The first arriving team comprised two EMTs: one went to assess the female and child and the other went to assess the male victims in the car.
“All of the males were pulseless. One had agonal gasps which is not true breathing but a brainstem reflex that occurs in cardiac arrest.
“The female and the child displayed vital signs and were transported to hospital. The six males were pronounced dead at the scene. The EMS team that was dispatched to the scene of the mass shooting was debriefed prior to being released from work.”
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
GRIEF stricken family members say they want answers after their loved ones were ambushed and “senselessly” killed during a brazen shooting at the Jerome Avenue and Chesapeake Road intersection on Thursday afternoon.
The deceased include Renardo Bastian, also known as “Crack Teeth”, Travis Cooper, Maurice Pinder, Kendal Lord, Delano Smith, and Dequant Brown, according to relatives and close friends.
The car in which the men were shot was riddled with bullets after they were approached by four gunmen who were said to be dressed all in black and armed with high powered weapons and handguns. The killing came shortly after the men had been released from police custody for firearm possession.
A woman and two-year-old girl were also critically injured in the gun attack, but are said, although critical, are in stable condition. Police suspect it was a gang related attack.
The men's deaths marked the country’s deadliest shooting in recent times, according to police. It has also pushed the nation’s murder count to 39 for the year, according to this newspaper’s records.
Relatives of the murdered victims and members of the Kemp Road community were distraught and inconsolable when The Tribune visited the area on Friday morning. Some were screaming in anger at police, who were also heavily present in the community.
The Tribune was told that all of the victims were friends and grew up in the area.
Ricardo McKenzie, cousin of Renardo Bastian, recalled how he watched him take his last breath at the scene. He said his last words to him and others were “don’t let me die.”
However, Mr McKenzie claimed when they tried to get medical assistance for the wounded man, they were denied help.
“His last words was ‘don’t let him die. I was on the scene...It’s sad that it has to come to this and the family is very hurt on the situation also because police officers allowed the situation to happen and told the ambulance not to assist while he was still living and breathing,” he claimed.
“The family is really hurt and we are calling on the commissioner to look into his officer because this is totally disrespectful to family members.”
Renardo’s father, Alfred Bastian also said he wants answers concerning his son’s death.
Mr Bastian said he was shocked when he heard his son—a father-of -four—was shot because he believed him to still be in police custody.
“When I heard the shots, I didn’t think it would’ve been him until a guy come on a bike and say, ‘boy they just shoot up Crack Teeth in one car’ and I said, ‘how that could be because Crack lock up?’” he said.
“How could that be and he lock up and so how he get through there? But…when I got there, my son was living and some guys try to take my son out the car but the police them run them and they holler ‘let him dead,’” he alleged.
Renardo is Mr Bastian’s third son to have lost his life to gun violence. His second son, Alfred Bastian Jr, aka “Halfman”, died last December after he was fatally wounded during a shooting incident outside a home in Cooper’s Terrace.
His eldest son, Kino Alfred Kelly Bastian was killed in a drive by shooting in the Kemp Road area in 2017.
“I gone tell you the truth, it hurts,” Mr Bastian said of his sons’ deaths.
“Right now, I'm just trying to hold my head above water and take it as it is,” Mr Bastian said. “The last one was my financial support because I haven’t worked for years and anything I wanted or needed, my sons used to do for me and they really used to take care of me. “All – Ally, Keno and Crack was the last one. We was very, very close. I just have my daughter.”
On Friday, The Tribune also spoke to Laverne Cartwright, mother of victim Travis Cooper, who was visibly distraught during this newspaper’s visit.
Mrs Cartwright lost two sons in the span of hours in what she described as a mother’s worst nightmare.
Her older son, who was sick in hospital, died late Wednesday night, several hours before his younger brother was fatally killed on Thursday.
“I really don’t know how to say what sort of day I had because it feel as if I wasn’t even here and to lose two children. It was hard and I don’t know how many mothers could go through something like this,’’ she said with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I don’t know how they live to see another day, but they were my children and I wouldn’t want this for any other mother.”
She said she was in her yard when the shots rang out, only to later find out her son had been wounded.
Kendal Lord Sr, father of murdered victim Kendal Lord, said he was also at his home at the time of the shooting. He said the last time he saw his son was Tuesday morning, a day before he was taken into police custody.
Mr Lord said while his son’s death was a shock, he is trying to cope with the news as best as he can.
“You just have to move on,” he said. “You can’t turn back the hands of time, so you just take it one day at a time and cope with the grief and just move on.”
Kendal leaves behind three children, two daughters and one son.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call police at 502-9929, 502-9935, 502-9942, or 502-9952. Tips can also be made to Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS (8477).
Comments
DDK 3 years, 8 months ago
What is this about the "police" disallowing help to the injured? If this is a fact, the situation with the so-called police force and their strongly rumoured involvement with the escalated killings of the past few years may be even worse than rumours. We are in deep, deep trouble.
viewersmatters 3 years, 8 months ago
Where on earth could any police officer direct any medical personel to not render medical assistance to anyone. We continue to prove ourselves as a D nation. Ambulance dont carry dead body. Thats not a police issue. We need to think before speaking
xtreme2x 3 years, 8 months ago
Where on earth could any police officer direct any medical personnel to not render medical assistance to anyone.
"IN THE BAHAMAS"
stislez 3 years, 8 months ago
U gatta be a ass either that or u dont live in the bahamas aye......bout in which country! Dumbest shit i eva hear like une kno how tings go........smt
Proguing 3 years, 8 months ago
Yeah right it's the police doing the killings in this country. Why are you always on the criminals side?
viewersmatters 3 years, 8 months ago
.
photo
Laverne Cartwright, mother of Travis Cooper, comforted by Pastor Ivan Butler.
Ricardo McKenzie, cousin of Renardo Bastian, recalled how he watched him take his last breath at the scene. He said his last words to him and others were “don’t let me die.”
However, Mr McKenzie claimed when they tried to get medical assistance for the wounded man, they were denied help.
So one minute someone watched him take his last breathe before passing away and the next minute police came on the scene pusher everyone back then the victim died again am assuming. Cause am sure the video that i watched HIM IN the car WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE INCLUDING HIS OWN MOTHER RECORDING HIM DYING INSTEAD OF TAKING HIM OUT OF THAT VEHICLE AND RUSHING HIM TO THE HOSPITAL FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE AND CORRECT ME IF AM WRONG BUT NO OFFICERS WAS ON THAT SCENE DURING THE RECORDING OF THOSE VIDEOS BUT YET THE POLICE DENIED THE FAMILY FROM GIVING HIM MEDICAL ASSISTANCE. Our problem as a nation is we lack the ability to think. How can anyone stand there watching a man loose his life and instead of rushing him to the hospital they want record and do what most people do best and point the blame om someone else for something we could had prevented
ISpeakFacts 3 years, 8 months ago
Bastian is a well known murderer and gang leader who should've been hanged a long time ago, I doubt he listened to his victims when they took their last breath! If their story has any truth to it (which I highly doubt), he got what he was asking for! GOOD RIDDANCE!!!
SP 3 years, 8 months ago
Sad, but true!
ISpeakFacts 3 years, 8 months ago
All of these thugs deserved to be rotting away in prison for life or given the electric chair for the heinous crimes they committed, there is absolutely no reason for any convicted murderer to continue roaming the streets, good riddance to all of these idiots!
FreeUs242 3 years, 8 months ago
No programs in communities to save the younger generation in schools from falling prey to this evil occult. Some of the young kids growing up in broken homes, so they turn to a life of crime being pressured by the older group. How do drugs and powerful army guns come into the country? This has been going on for years destroying our generation to be monsters to society. The higher ups (rich) is behind alot of today's corruption of bringing in these stuff and supplying ordinary thugs with high end weapons & drugs. The buyers here knows how to smuggle in these weapons and make a profit of selling it to the streets. (GANGS)
FreeUs242 3 years, 8 months ago
Our justice system failed us long ago... who's not better than the thugs on the streets.
GodSpeed 3 years, 8 months ago
Is there a vaccine to protect me from these killer animals living among us? I am more afraid of them than Covid, and they're a more lethal and real threat, please put the country back in lockdown to flatten the curve.
birdiestrachan 3 years, 8 months ago
The worst shooting in recent times. when did they have shootings this bad?
I am very sorry for all concerned. this is not a good situation for the Bahamas We are a small Country.
TalRussell 3 years, 8 months ago
The agony of the Victims' extended families could be failed if it should become evident that their governing officials are not taking the risks associated with COVID, more seriously. I, for one, don't trust that they are putting the PopoulacesCommoners' at large (PCAL) health welfare as thee number one priority..., and, not points of entry including our ports and airports to visiting, cruising and traveling strangers.
Vaccines are but a tool, towards protecting PCAL.
I beg to be made wrong!
Proguing 3 years, 8 months ago
The answer to the question is: if you don't want to die, don't get involved in crime
stislez 3 years, 8 months ago
I agree but when you have people like marley(R.I.P) trainging people like tyson(R.I.P) from a young age its hard to duck crime. The older criminals does prey on the young boys in school who dont have much like the other commentor say, kids who come from broken homes and families. They offer them money, protection, drug, women, etc. Young boys in junior high school wont turn that down when they have nothing. You ever hear how they does call dem man "daddy". On top of that some of them groomers you cant tell them NO or they will have you killed. Where yall think all dis killin coming from? Ya boy who from pinewood! He running tings! I won't call he name but him and tyson trained by marley. The police know exactly who he is. The top One Order man who authorizing all these killings like irie and rat. The police know who he is but they fear him. They do, they prolly the ones who give da man dem the heads up that those characters was getting out. One ting the public don't know is how much fear these gang leaders have the police in. If the commissioner say the POLICE dont have them type of war weapons, you think they going after the man dem who have dem in abundance! All dem AK what in the country come from when Heads was alive. He was the man bringing in all the Ak's but den again he was leader if fire an theft so........basically what i sying is the cops afraid of dem man dem because they know them man dem ruthless and will kill your family an ting. These cops live where we live so you think they risking all that? What the cops is do is let dese man dem kill up one another an sometimes the innocent public is get hurt but to them they rather the criminals kill each other. Listen, when i was in jail in 2012 i witness with my own two eyes and ears. We was all shackled together in one cell one morning, bout 40-50 of us waiting to go to medical. Everybody handcuffed to the next person an so on an so on in one line. The man dem in the back started fighting, they was ganging one guy like 5 or 6 of dem. He started screaming that was the only way the officers hear something was going on cuz they put us all in that cell an just leave! So when they end up hearing the screams them an the warden end up coming in the cell and slap up couple of da man dem, but by that time ya boy was already done tear up. I heard the warden say out his own mouth.......Yall wait till yall go on the road to kill each other een none of dat goin on up here!
ThisIsOurs 3 years, 8 months ago
I agree with the first part of what you said. These boys are lured in to this lifestyle by what they're yearning for, "love". Or what feels like love. And when they find out they've only enslaved themselves, it's too late. The only way to fight it is to start showing real love to these underprivileged kids. Show them that there is hope and no matter how disadvantaged they are, there is a way to climb out
mandela 3 years, 8 months ago
A person does not have to be involved in crime to become a victim of these MONSTERS, take for instance the young mother and her 2yr old child who was shot and are now fighting for their lives. or the innocent 10yr playing outside or the child in their room studying for school, These MONSTERS need to be eradicated from society and more attention needs to be invested in young men upon entering the first grade to mold them into being educated and productive in their lives upon reaching manhood. I think it's best to invest early and benefit later, than not to invest early or not all and pay drastically later, MONSTRES ROAMING ABOUT REEKING HAVOC ON IT'S CITIZENS.
ThisIsOurs 3 years, 8 months ago
They're not monsters. That statement is the biggest mistake Marvin Dames made. And explains why this crime mirrors exactly the execution of those men in that house in Blair. By police. It's what's gotten us here. Treating disadvantaged people like the "other", harassing them, imprisoning them, shooting them indiscriminately. This is the end result. And now we upping it by tagging them as monsters. They're not. They're human beings. Do they deserve punishment? Yes, severe punishment, but punishment handed out in a justified manner. This retaliation thing will destroy all of us. It's good for nobody. When they shoot 6 down, 36 will rise up. We need to stop this.
Clamshell 3 years, 8 months ago
Good point. Just two of the victims referenced leave behind a total of 7 children; likely the other 4 left behind a large number as well ... the next generation.
SP 3 years, 8 months ago
Wonder if this mass shooting will cause the US embassy to issue another travel warning on the Bahamas?
Trump's four years of "make America hate again" reign of dividing Americans resulted in 48 mass murders in the last 30 days, now being described as a national embarrassment by President Joe Biden.
To be fair, the US needs to issue travel warnings against themselves!
tribanon 3 years, 8 months ago
@stislez's comments above are very telling, in particular the following part:
".....basically what i sying is the cops afraid of dem man dem because they know them man dem ruthless and will kill your family an ting. These cops live where we live so you think they risking all that? What the cops is do is let dese man dem kill up one another an sometimes the innocent public is get hurt but to them they rather the criminals kill each other."
There are many of us who believe that even if the Communist China Virus had not been unleashed on the world, the days of The Bahamas remaining a major tourist destination are numbered, especially in New Providence.
tribanon 3 years, 8 months ago
No one should hold their breath waiting for the police to find and arrest the 'true' executioners of the six thugs killed, or the source of their high powered weaponry. After all, Dames and Rolle would be the first to tell us they now fear for their own lives. That's how bad things have become in our crime-ridden country, and its only going to get a whole lot worse, even if total lockdowns are imposed to try keep the killers off of the streets and out of our neighbourhoods.
The writing has been on the wall for decades, and has been ignored by successive corrupt generations of PLP and FNM politicians alike. As a result there is now an overwhelming number of these cold blooded killers roaming about, in much closer proximity to the rest of us than we would like to think.
John 3 years, 8 months ago
Unless and until the leadership of this country decides to end these FAKE wars on drugs and war on gangs, where authorities are given power to slay young men and label them thugs and ‘monsters’, these type killings will never end! America’s fake wars on drugs and gangs has caused Bahamians to turn against each other and destroy civility. NO POLICE.FORCE should be allowed to operate covert against it’s own people and NOT be accountable . YES the people mourn but yet they remain silent because NINETY PERCENT of The BAHAMIAN population believe there is more to this story than gangs vs gangs. Many say the execution was too precise.and too well executed to be gang activity. Listen closely to Marvin Dames as he recites about ‘monsters’. That man is the greatest threat to Bahamians and this Bahamas. And monitor closely the comments of some of those in this forum who snicker and sneer. The workers of iniquity will eventually be exposed!
John 3 years, 8 months ago
Time for Bahamians to become united when killings like this happen. Gather forces to cause their own investigations and know for certain who did the killings. Because even as it stands now, it the police arrest and charge someone, what are the chances of them making it to trial?
tribanon 3 years, 8 months ago
Are you inciting an insurrection on behalf of your Communist Chinese friends? lol
ThisIsOurs 3 years, 8 months ago
The saddest thing they report in these stories aside from innocent victims, is the account of people either running for their life or begging for someone to save them. No matter how big and bad they are noone wants to be killed. We all want the same things, peace and love. I'm betting if any of them could find a way out of this life they'd take it.
TalRussell 3 years, 8 months ago
Ever occurred, part the legacy the Comrade Commish of the Royal Constabulary is going be different..., if only he had been more focused on conducting surveillance in direction potentially serious murderous crime - before the guns started firing live rounds bullets - rather than on all the police surveillance hours which he personally authorized to be wasted - leading up to the arrest and detention of opposition members of an opposition party, royally legitimized by Her Majesty the Queen's - Government House, point person to the realm?
John 3 years, 8 months ago
Do you know if the Black countries and the Muslim countries were to impose a boycott and embargo of American products and services, the US economy would collapse in a matter of days? Find ya balls , unite and tell ‘mystery Babylon to CYC!’
tribanon 3 years, 8 months ago
Blacks and Muslims around the world have many more and much better reasons for not buying products and services connected to Communist China until such time that its people over throw the Xi Jinping led CCP.
John 3 years, 8 months ago
Unfortunately it is THE POLICE under the direction of MARVIN DAMES who have the biggest reputation for doing these type killings over the past several years. Starting with the riddling of the young man through MCCollough corner , who was on his way to work. Then the car by the graveyard on Spikenard Road was riddled with three men. And similar by the bank on Mackey Street. And the house on the Eastern Road. And the young man by the ‘tracks’ and the one on Wulff Roa amidst several others. This country needs a full investigation of this and those matters. Who has access to this type firepower?
Cobalt 3 years, 8 months ago
You just couldn’t resist it could you? Like a predictable moth to a flame I knew it wasn’t long before you would attempt to implicate the authorities for these killings. Every time criminals reap what they sow it’s somehow the Police’s fault, huh? Not the parents of these filthy rats or the rats themselves, but the police, huh? Just do us a favor and confine your stupidity to the ghetto where you’re from, or shut your ignorant mouth please.
Sickened 3 years, 8 months ago
Are these the families of the gang boyz just murdered or are they the family members of the people that "may have been" murdered by these same gang boyz over the years?
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