By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
TWO men were remanded into custody yesterday in connection with a double shooting last August that left one man injured and another — a popular local DJ — dead after months of battling for his life.
James Johnson, 33, and Jerome Wright, 22, were arraigned before Assistant Chief Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans on charges of murder and attempted murder in the shooting of Arthur Wilson and Deontae Ferguson outside a business on Young Street on August 28, 2024.
Wright was previously charged with two counts of attempted murder for the same incident last September. Following Wilson’s death on February 22, one charge was upgraded to murder.
Prosecutors say the men approached the victims shortly before 11.30pm, opening fire before fleeing the scene on foot. Ferguson was treated for his injuries and survived. Wilson, however, was shot twice in the head and once in the chest. The shooting left him paralysed and hospitalised for months.
The Tribune previously reported that Wilson had said in an interview earlier this year that he was shot shortly after filing a police report in support of a rape victim. His mother, Alethia Ferguson-Cunningham, claimed he received repeated threats and feared for his life, and said police were not sufficiently responsive to their concerns.
She also described the immense physical and emotional toll her son endured following the attack. Wilson’s family launched a GoFundMe campaign in hopes of securing treatment abroad, but the effort fell short, and plans to airlift him to Cuba were abandoned.
“He would give you the shirt off his back, and if he don’t know you and if you don’t have no food, he’d cut that plate in half, and he’d share that with you,” his mother said during a previous interview, rejecting any perception that her son was involved in wrongdoing.
Yesterday, Johnson and Wright were informed in court that they were not required to enter pleas. The case will proceed to the Supreme Court through a Voluntary Bill of Indictment (VBI). They were also advised of their right to apply for bail in the higher court.
Both men were remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, with their VBI expected to be served on May 1.
Assistant Superintendent of Police S Coakley represented the prosecution.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.