Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander speaks to reporters at the scene at Palmdale Plaza where two men were injured when they were shot during a robbery of two deposit bags on May 21, 2024. Photo: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Chief Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
POLICE Commissioner Clayton Fernander said murders are up 13 per cent compared to the same period last year, and police will review its crime-fighting strategies and beef up patrols to clamp down on gun violence.
“All boots will be on the ground to ensure that this beautiful country of ours remains safe,” he said during a press briefing. “We can’t stop it, but we will try and we will do our best and we can’t do it alone. We need that partnership to work along with us.”
Commissioner Fernander said police are questioning four men in connection with the fatal shooting of a man on bail in Grand Bahama last week.
The victim was found in an unfinished building on Bronze Drive, off Midshipman Road.
He said police are also following significant leads into a double shooting that left a man dead on Ferguson Street Thursday.
The victim and another man were reportedly travelling east on Ferguson Street when they were obstructed by the driver of a small grey Japanese vehicle.
As they attempted to flee the scene, the three masked men pursued them and fired shots in their direction, fatally wounding one of them.
Commissioner Fernander said police uncovered a firearm from the deceased at the scene and linked the weapon to two recent murders.
However, he declined to say which murders the guns were connected to or if they were used by the deceased.
The police chief also highlighted two “significant” seizures of illegal firearms, including an incident where customs officers discovered a box containing nine pistols and a quantity of ammunition and drugs at the airport.
The weapons were on display at yesterday’s press conference.
“We are working with our US partners,” he said. “We suspect that they came in from the US and were destined to a courier company here in Nassau. That matter is under active investigation as we speak.”
He also noted last week’s arrest of a man who had 13 pistols, two high-powered weapons and over $300,000 worth of suspected marijuana hidden in his home.
Commissioner Fernander said police spent the entire weekend trying to get details on how the firearms were smuggled into the country.
“I know they are armed with information, and this investigation will continue,” he said.
When the man and his mother were charged in court, he pleaded guilty to a litany of firearm and ammunition offences.
CORRECTION: The print version of this story had an incorrect headline stating the increase was 17%. The rise is 13%. We apologise for the error.
Comments
Sickened 6 months ago
Murders are up which means that unemployment is down.
TalRussell 6 months ago
You might be alone for the rest of your life.... Sometin' that, all 513,333 popoulaces', must come to accept that if the murder rate continues to escalate by just 13%...Means that within 3 generations...Everyone who knows you, will become but footwears for the afterlife.** --- Yes?
John 6 months ago
The concern should not be just that Murders are up, but the number of teens ( 15 y/o ‘s who are being both killers and killed. This has to be a disturbing trend. And the number of firearms m, including assault weapons, that are being busted. Either being attempted to be smuggled into the country or being sold on the streets. What is the appropriate punishment for a person caught with THIRTEEN weapons including two assault weapons?
. And yes , many like to attack the police. But with the recovery of so many weapons off the streets and tge various videos with young men being ambushed and murdered:assassinated in brought daylight and on busy thoroughfares. The public can appreciate more the hard work if police officers and the danger of the job. For example one often hears ‘you think they had to bring all them vehicles or all dem officers had to come to make one lil arrest?’ Well in this day and time, better safe than sorry. The police don’t know what they are up against when they respond to a call. And best they respond in force.
Porcupine 6 months ago
When you go into the hospital and a patient has died, do you ask the janitor how that person died? When we ask the police to help solve crime, aren't we doing the same thing? The police are only there to clean up the mess. They have neither the information or education required to answer intelligently.. Like politicians, they can only speak about things they know little about. Otherwise, given the loud pronouncements of both the police and our politicians, we should have seen some improvement in our crime statistics. Yes?
John 6 months ago
Your logic evades me: the premis of policing is ‘to protect and to serve.’ They go hand in hand and police are not only trained to protect themselves bu or others trusted in their custody but to teach society as a whole how to protect themselves and to not become victims ( of crime) or murder
Porcupine 6 months ago
Sorry John, Let me try again. The police do not have the educational background to truly understand the reasons for crime. Simple. And, I notice that we are, as a population, not well versed educationally on all matters. Economic, social, political. The reasons for crime are mostly economic. Still waiting for some of our leaders and educators to say so. The police are not scholars on crime. They merely clean up the mess. How is that logic hard to follow? And what you write above makes little to no sense.
John 6 months ago
And what is the real punishment for murder in this country? A killer is caught, gets charged, goes to prison to await trial. He eventually ( soon) gets bail and is either himself murdered Or commits additional murders. There has to be some definitive punishment for cold blooded murder and even more severe for these ambush and assassination type killings
ExposedU2C 6 months ago
DOUBLE CORRECTION: The corrected online version of this story also had an incorrect headline stating the increase was only 13%. The actual rise according to hospital, morgue and coroner records is 29%. All concerned apologise for the material error.
John 6 months ago
The man found with 13 weapons, including two assault rifles and ammunition and drugs pled guilty and got a five year sentence. His sixty year old mother, who lives with him pled ‘not guilty.’
DonAnthony 6 months ago
Madness. Makes one wonder if these judges even live in the Bahamas. The judiciary and lenient sentences are at the root of this crime problem. Sentence should have been at least 20 years.
SP 6 months ago
Lol....The Commissioner needs to have another emergency summit with in Carlos and Moncur!
The PLP is all smoke and broken mirrors .
ThisIsOurs 6 months ago
The msn found with 15 weapons is only the dollar pusher.
Bonefishpete 6 months ago
Not great not terrible.
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