The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE body of a man with an injury was found in a liquor store on First Street, the Grove, on Monday night, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Although authorities have not officially identified the victim, sources in the community told The Tribune he is Gerald Coakley, who owned the store.

Chief Superintendent Shanta Knowles, who heads the Criminal Investigations Department, explained yesterday that police received a call on Monday shortly after 11am that the body of a man was found in a building.

“When we got there, he was unresponsive,” she said. “EMS came and a short time later they pronounced that he was deceased. We are working with very limited information at this time. We’re hoping that we can have an official identification of that man sometime today.

“There was an injury to his body. Of course, we will await the autopsy’s official report from the pathologist, which will confirm the cause of death and we will be able to know which direction we go in with this matter, but we continue to investigate.

“So, we will continue to investigate – have a homicide team look into this matter and investigate it should we have the need or cause, to reclassify them.”

Asked if the injuries were blunt force trauma, she replied: “We can suspect that it may have been blunt force trauma, but again, like I said, we will await the exact cause of death in this incident.”

When The Tribune visited the scene yesterday morning, one woman said she had known Mr Coakley her whole life and described him as an “honest” and “hard working” man.

“He didn’t deserve this,” said the woman, who did not want to be named. “Not one bit. Everybody looked up to him. Everybody looked up to this man. This a man of principle.

“Plenty people ain’t sleep last night,” she added.

Police are appealing to members of the public who may have information that can assist with this latest incident and other homicides to contact the Criminal Investigations Department at 502-9991/2, Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS (8477) or the nearest police station.