The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

POLICE Commissioner Clayton Fernander said major crimes are trending down, with the murder rate 16 per cent lower than it was up to this time last year.

He said 92 people have been killed so far.

“We continue to be tasked with our same prolific offenders, who continue to get bail and return in their old ways and continue to commit crime,” he said during an Office of the Prime Minister briefing yesterday. “It is like a death sentence. An individual gets bail and, in a few days or weeks, he’d end up dead.”

He said police have solved nearly 70 per cent of murders this year, insisting officers are doing their job by finding people and bringing them to court promptly.

 “We are losing too much, with young men on both sides of the coin, as victims and the accused,” he said.

 Commissioner Fernander could not say how many persons accused of murder were on bail.

 On Tuesday, a man in his early 30s was shot to death in the Nassau Village community. Police said the man was on bail for murder, armed robbery and possession of an unlicensed firearm.

 On Tuesday last week, a 33-year-old man was shot dead near Deveaux Street. He was on bail for drug-related matters.

 On October 31, a 29-year-old man was shot to death after leaving the gym at the Harbour Bay Plaza. Police said he was on bail for serious offences.

 On October 21, a 21-year-old man was murdered on First Street, Coconut Grove. Police said the man was on bail for three offences: possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, possession of a firearm, and possession of ammunition.