The Tribune

By Tribune Staff Reporter

newsroom@tribunemedia.net

THE father of a murdered man connected to a corruption investigation says he will not let the police sweep the investigation away.

Michael Fox Sr is the father of Michael Fox Jr, who appeared in voice notes alongside Dino Smith that allegedly captured a quid-pro-quo arrangement between the two men, a lawyer, and the former head of the Criminal Investigations Department.

Last week, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said that there would be no further public statements made about the investigation until it is complete.

In response, Mr Fox Sr said in a video on Facebook: “You may silence another set of people, but not me. I just let you know we going to keep talking about this issue until we get, the Bahamian people get the results that they need to get.

“So you might as well do what needs to be done and deliver the truth or be stink enough to tell us some more lies, but the truth will be better.”

The voice notes appeared to be connected to a $1.5m airport bank car heist in November. Mr Fox Jr and Dino Smith were suspects in that matter but were never charged. Both men were murdered in May and January respectively.

Two other suspects were charged in connection with the robbery – Oral Roberts, 34, and Akeil Holmes, 26. Roberts was killed in the Fox Hill area last month.

Mr Fox Sr on Thursday lambasted the statement in a nearly six-minute video on social media, saying one could smell the “stinkness all over that statement”.

He said: “Commissioner, we know what really taken place and you don’t want them talk to me. You don’t want them to have anything to say to people who really know about this case because you know they will be pointing finger back at you. You know just what you dealing with.”

In a separate statement, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe expressed confidence in the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Security and Intelligence unit, saying he was assured they would investigate the allegations with “probity and expedition”.

The father also criticised the minister, accusing him of not bringing forth any evidence and wondered if Mr Munroe is attempting to make this issue “hush-hush”.

He said: “I wonder what else you’re gonna throw to the public and believe that you can throw any old bone to us, as dogs, as citizens and we accept it. Some of us don’t eat dog bone and ain’t none of us no dog.”

The father warned them to stop putting “perfume” on the situation.

He said: “I hope you’re smart enough to realize y’all season are closed. You’re going to make it hard on this next election. I hope how Brave holds you accountable for causing him his seat. Not just his seat, his position.”

Mr Fox Sr added: “This one ain’t going away, not right now. Take too much of a big broom to sweep. Bahamian people ain’t gonna let you sweep this one and I ain’t one of them who will let you sweep it. We gonna clean this one up, and we gonna clean this one up here properly.

“This gonna get clean up in the way that God wants us to be clean up. This for you commissioner and everybody else who touching this matter in the wrong way. I’m telling you now, be careful how you deal with this fire. Be careful and you think you outing it. You could be well, burning it, and that’s what you’re doing. You could be well, burning it, and that’s what you’re doing. That statement this morning is more wood added to the fire than ever.”

In a separate video on Friday, the father warned to be prepared as in three days “something coming” but did not say.

The mother of Dino Smith, Sandra Smith, said she believed the case is lagging and accused the police of protecting their own.

“I want the investigation happen anytime now. If they hush us now, we ain’t gonna hear about it no more,” she told The Tribune on Friday.

Her son was killed in January in a daylight shooting on Prince Charles Drive. She admitted the situation has hurt her as a parent.

She said: “You know it hurt me so much that’s the only way that I had to help me. I just had two deaths aside him. Two children death before him and a space of three years I had three dead.

“So you know, as a parent, I hurting to know if my child was wrong I’d rather y’all send him to prison than to kill my child at home like a dog. Now, who gonna to take care of his four little girls?”

Both parents said they had been informed about the existence of voice notes by their sons before their deaths.

Ms Smith said she never got the voice notes. Mr Fox Sr said he had them but was not responsible for their release.

A man who broadcast the voice notes on Facebook, Sylvens Metayer, was shot in July during a Facebook Live broadcast. He survived the incident and was helped by police in the US, where he lives.