The bodies of two teenagers are taken from the scene of a shooting that took place yesterday evening on Faith Avenue, bringing the country’s murder count to 30. It was the second fatal shooting in less than 24 hours. Photo: Moise Amisial
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Editor
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THREE people were killed in less than 24 hours yesterday, pushing the murder tally for the year to 30.
The latest incident, which claimed the lives of two teenagers, happened at a residence north of Carmichael Road on Faith Avenue shortly after 6pm.
According to reports, the victims were in the backyard when two males entered the property and opened fire in their direction before they fled the area.
The first victim, aged 16, suffered multiple gunshot wounds. He tried to seek refuge inside the residence, where he later collapsed and succumbed to his injuries.
The second victim, aged 17, also sustained multiple gunshot wounds. He sought refuge in an unfinished structure nearby, where he collapsed and died.
Earlier yesterday, a man was killed inside a club on Harbour Island around 12.30am. Police later arrested three men in connection with the incident. Two videos of the shooting went viral on social media yesterday. A black-and-white video showed a man walking up to the victim and firing eight shots at close range. Another video captured the shock of club patrons as the shooting happened near them.
On Sunday morning, Michael Woodside, a father of six, was murdered while taking his 16-year-old daughter to band practice.
The girl was grazed with a bullet but did not suffer a serious injury.
In an interview yesterday with Eyewitness News, the father of the victim of Sunday’s murder victim, Vincent Woodside, cried, saying: “My son ain’ coming home no more.”
“I gone to the truck in the yard and I shake my son head, I say Michael, Michael wake up man, Michael this your daddy talking to you. I feel he pulse, say oh Lord, I ain feel nothing.”
Mr Woodside said one of the bullets pierced his store.
“He was my son,” he said. “He was my only support. He was all I work and live for.”
Michael Woodside’s uncle, Fredrick Wallace, said the murdered man was a hard worker and a good father who played an integral role in his children’s lives.
The 35-year-old was a watersports operator and a professional welder.
Comments
K4C 9 months ago
These shootings are TARGGETED by vigilante groups, and may be a sigh the government is about to loses control of public safety
More concerning factors is the abundance of high powered automatic weapons
The sitting government, isn't part of the solution, neither is the opposition FNM, they are part of the problem
stillwaters 9 months ago
I agree and I think this is exactly how it began in Haiti. Gangs becoming more and more powerful and blatant ......becoming better armed than the police force......and nobody knowing what to do until it's too late.
K4C 9 months ago
as the sitting government and the former government has allowed, Haiti is at the point of being to dangerous to control and contain, as the Bahamas will, remember , I believe Haitians make up a large proportion of the Bahamas, as government sat and watched
hrysippus 9 months ago
The Bahamas has experienced 30 murders in 58 days so far this year. If the murders continue at this rate, and no sane person wishes it to, then the total for the year projects out to 275 murders. A country's murder rate is calculated on the basis of the number of murders per 100,000 of population. Even people who did not do well at mathematics when in school we be able to see that with a population of 400,000 the country would have, if this trend continues, a murder rate of over 68 murders per 100,000 population. The highest of any country in the world. This both sad and disturbing. My condolences to to the hundreds of the victims family members. My business partner was murdered for his Rolex watch several years ago. The pain of loss never leaves.
John 9 months ago
I guess you skipped Math Class (aka ducked school). If there are 30 murders in two months, how do you deduce (project) that there will be 275 murders in the year? 30 in reply months - 15 in one month equals 180, NOT 275! This is already too many with no need to exaggerate but maybe it’s is poor arithmetic.
Porcupine 9 months ago
Still remain in "armed conflict zone".rankings, yes?. Great for Business.
hrysippus 9 months ago
Jo Hun, thanks for the correction; I was working with French numbers and forgot to translate back to English ones. 30 murders multiplied by 364, divided by 58 gives 188. 188 divided by 4 gives a murder rate of 47 per 100,000, Still exceptionally and unacceptably high.
John 9 months ago
Yes it is but how many Africans did Napoleon load on to slave ships and sail into the middle of the ocean and slaughter them in cold blood. What is it called when bloody hands are washing bloody hands? And since you mentioned French as your primary language, obviously you know what the blood thirsty French savages did to the Africans and continue to do to Haiti today. So you can’t dig into the center of this sad and sickening bloodbath that’s happening in The Bahamas today and not knowing what forms the crux of the matter.
themessenger 9 months ago
@john the bigot, you’re also conveniently overlooking those bloodthirsty African savages that sold their black brothers and sisters into bondage and servitude to French ruled Haiti. And while I agree that the French had a lot to do with the destitution of that country, last time I checked the Haitian people have been self governed longer than The Bahamas.
bahamianson 9 months ago
This is capital punishment in its present form. The government will not do it , so the streets are doing it. Either it is done in a controlled way( government executions) or the street's way( public killings). No one is getting justice in this country for whichever reason. Courts backlogged 10 years with murder charges, prison too small, jury tainted, everyone knows everyone, police corruption, and the list goes on. Wr are not progressing , we are getting worse in every way. The roads and neighborhoods look like other Caribbean countries, and not in a good way. The 9 year old boys are.cursing and sexual. The 9 year old girls are no better. What are they learning and how can they become outstanding citiz3ns of this fine country?
sheeprunner12 9 months ago
Nassau is no different from Ukraine or Gaza .......... it is a killing zone
rosiepi 9 months ago
Why is the Davis government waiting for a solution to present itself? They’ve talked about this program, that gang intervention and maybe this anti violence community movement since day one and none have been enacted and or materialized.
Are they waiting for more innocent bystanders to be killed? A car transporting an innocent family, perhaps even tourists caught in the midst of a gunfight between one of the RBPF’s drug gang chasing their rivals?
There can be only one reason why Davis & Co are refusing to act.
John 9 months ago
Psalms 105:37 (NASB95) Psa 105:37 NASB95 - 37 Then He brought them out with silver and gold, And among His tribes there was not one who stumbled. The murders are an effort to prevent prophecy being fulfilled. The Black people endured 400 years of slavery and 300 years of mistreatment in Mystery Babylon. Now it is the time for them to receive their just rewards as God had promised, but Satan and his wicked demons and handcrafted of wickedness will try everything in their power to prevent this from happening. Why ? Because not only does it mean that Black people will be finally be delivered from the bondages if slavery and the uneven yoke. But it also means that those who kept them in bondage and mistreated them WILL BE JUDGED!
John 9 months ago
God shows Abram that Israel will be enslaved (in Egypt) for 400 years. Then they will return to the promised land. Abram is told he will live a good long life.
Verses 13-14 are a prophecy of the Egyptian bondage and Exodus after 400 years in slavery. Know for certain is the response to Abram’s question in verse 8, “How may I know I will possess it?” God answers your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. God predicts Abram’s descendants will dwell in a foreign land, other than the promised land of Israel. God even foretells the time frame, saying they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. Abram’s descendants would be slaves of the rulers in a foreign land (Egypt) for four centuries but would be released in “the fourth generation.” The bondage in Egypt was certainly a part of God’s overall plan. Not even 400 years of bondage could interfere with God’s plan to fulfill the covenant.
I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, is a reference to the plagues inflicted upon Egypt ( Exodus 6:6, 7:4, 12:12). But afterward they will come out with many possessions. This promise was fulfilled at the time of the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12:35-39; Psalm 105:37). The Egyptians gave many gifts to the Israelites upon their departure.
God reassures Abram that the foretold slavery in Egypt would not occur in his lifetime saying, you shall go to your fathers in peace. Abram was buried at a good old age of 175 (Genesis 25:7-8).
K4C 9 months ago
let me know when scriptures solve the crime and killings
pileit 9 months ago
Right, its satan & he demons at fault, not the full grown men behind the triggers. They bear no blame, lets blame the supernatural forces....after all they have impunity right? We've not been given any capacity to resist or oppose them, right? Whew! For a second there I thought we were gonna have to take responsibility for our crass, animalistic deterioration, but it ain us, its the debil.
ExposedU2C 9 months ago
We have a national crime emergency in addition to our national debt emergency and, true to form, both Davis and Cooper are MIA (missing in action).
The Bahamas is well on its way to being deservedly crowned the nation with the highest ever murder rate per capita in the world. And Davis and Cooper will surely be giving Fernander and the many other worthless brown suits some kind of national award or honours for achieving this most remarkable feat.
Meanwhile, air and sea visitors will be drying up quickly as word continues to spread that The Bahamas will soon be at the top of the list of the most dangerous places on the planet to put on one's travel itinerary.
SP 9 months ago
No amount of ducking and blaming the family will change the fact that after PLP and FNM 50 year dismal failure with immigration, education, natural resources, and sustainable development policies = A failed society.
We were led by them to this place!
SP 9 months ago
As more young men are murdered, the telling part of it all is that Brave supposedly knew exactly how to solve Haiti's gang problems, but he has absolutely no idea of how to deal with his own Haitian gangs in the Bahamas???
ScubaSteve 9 months ago
One strategy: We need to immediately get aggressive and start to remove all of the guns from the population. How? It could be done in steps. For example: step 1) offer a "cash for guns" promotion for the next 3 mos; and then step 2) once that expires, then give the population 3 more mos to turn in any guns remaining; and finally step 3) once those two 3-month periods of time have passed -- if you are found with a gun, instant jail time. And lastly, in tandem with step #3 -- you could offer a Reward to the public if someone turns in a person that is known to still have a gun. That might help motivate the public to start turning folks in that still have a gun hidden at home or in their car.
ExposedU2C 9 months ago
So you believe the only solution is for violent criminals to possess firearms, because they will surely get them on the black market no matter what is done, while the rest of us law abiding folks go without a licensed firearm to defend ourselves and our loved ones. Suggest you start praying for yourself and your family that you are never targeted by one of the many violent criminals wandering around in our society today, no matter which island you may live on.
John 9 months ago
As long as a country, a territory, a nation has wealth or some tangible assets, they are prone to be invaded and have their government fingered or overthrown , their economy deeply suppressed , their resources pilfered and their society interrupted and antisocial and disruptive and harmful habits and behavior introduced, if only as a smoke screen for the real problem and the real perpetrators. But the great thing is prophecy is being fulfilled and if A has happened, B is happening and A plus B equals C, then C will happen! And the great news is if many of these men and now young boys are innocently being killed, then their souls are in a good place and they will be redeemed. Worry not about those who can only destroy the flesh but concern with he that can also destroy the spirit. No this is not a cop out. These murders too will end.
jackbnimble 9 months ago
We do not have a murder problem. We have a gun problem. If we cannot control the guns that come into the country, how do we expect to control the murders? How is it that the criminals have such easy access to guns and murder for hire is a lucrative business?
There is also the illegal immigration aspect of it. We don't even know who is in our country. We are allowing migrants in from countries with a history of violence with no effort to put laws in place to stop them being hired and matriculating. Successive Governments continue to use illegal migration as a tool for votes, so what else do we expect? We can continue to bury our heads in the sand until we have a sun sea and sand destination that nobody wants to come to or we can pass the proper laws to put an end to it - starting with our precious constitution.
I was very much against the American travel advisories but I now realize that at this pace - with people being shot in traffic and in broad daylight, it's only a matter of time before the tourist are actually affected. The persons with guns have no regard for life, whether it's killing their intended target or some innocent bystander.
We have got to get our house in order!
ExposedU2C 9 months ago
Guns don't kill people, violent murderers kill people and they will do so with whatever weapon or object they can put their hands on when they get the urge to do so. More often than not the only real defense for the targeted victim is having a licensed firearm with the basic periodic training and knowhow to use it when necessary and keep it secure.
Successive corrupt FNM and PLP governments and their failed economic and social policies have created an environment in which unchecked illegal immigration has spawned warring gangs, fighting for more and more turf. Like their predecessors, Tweedledum Davis Tweedledee Cooper are much too busy making hay for themselves while Rome is burning in a spate of violent criminal activity, the likes of which has most Bahamians fearing for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
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