By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
THE Deputy Prime Minster’s aide was shot during an attempted robbery yesterday, prompting an island-wide search for two suspects.
The incident occurred around 9:49am Monday.
Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade said police do not believe 42-year-old Andrew Sweeting, who is the personal bodyguard for Deputy Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis, was targeted because he is an officer, but rather, his position on the police force may have saved his life.
“Just around 9:59am we a got a call of a shooting at the rear of the Prince Charles Shopping Centre in a residential area. Officers responded and discovered that one of our own, Sergeant Andrew Sweeting, had been shot and injured by two assailants. The information we have is that he was on duty, at a location, a legitimate location, in a residential area just at the rear of the Prince Charles Shopping centre, when these two assailants approached him and asked him to ‘free up’ meaning they wanted to rob him. Of course Officer Sweeting ,who is always armed, tried to withdraw his service weapon to engage the suspects who were obviously armed. Gunshots rang out and Officer Sweeting was hit twice and the assailants then ran off,” he said.
“He was shot in the lower abdomen and left palm. Sweeting hung on to his weapon but unfortunately he was not able to stop the assailants given the injuries he sustained very, very quickly...Sweeting is a member of the Security and Intelligence branch, a special branch. He is in protective service and he is the personal aide to the honourable DPM of the country. He is armed at all times.
“I can tell you emphatically he was not targeted. I say it again, he was not targeted. I have no information to cause me to believe as Commissioner, the assailants accosted him and attacked him because they knew he was a police officer, but I am of the view that once he was accosted and attempted to withdraw his service weapon, they obviously recognized ‘we have taken on a difficult target’ and they ran off. Otherwise he might be dead. That is the reality of it.”
Commissioner Greenslade said police caught one suspect in the same area of the Prince Charles Shopping Centre and are combing the island for the second suspect. He urged members of the public or family members of the suspect to turn him in and to do so immediately.
“We have a young adult male in custody. He is well known to us and he is falling into the category of people who I referred to recently as being in and out of the system. We are still combing the Nassau Village area and the surrounding areas for the second suspect, but we are asking citizens to assist us,” he said.
“Relatives and friends should turn him in because we will continue to seek him out and we do have a name and I can safely say we have the first suspect, we believe and we are professionally looking for the second one and we are going to be relentless. I am not going to back off, so the best thing would be for them to turn him in, if they care about him they should turn him in. We are also optimistic that with continued help from the public we will catch the second suspect and bring some resolution to this unfortunate shooting.”
Comments
banker 10 years, 10 months ago
Remind me, which PLP cabinet minister gave a free pass to gun runners?
TalRussell 10 years, 10 months ago
What program is in place by the police to aggressively rid Bahamaland of guns. Seems the media can't wait for the next shooting to report on. Why have they become proponents for even arming our citizens. This policeman was armed and trained in the use of his side arm, still he took two of the assailants bullets. The growing number of policeman's carry guns is also of great concern. This policeman was lucky. The media is reporting that the policeman was on duty, meaning on official police business at the location?
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 10 months ago
Found that strange myself...on duty at a private residence...at least I don't see any businesses in the back there. I guess he could have been checking for odd activity...but then why would he have been by himself? Don't they typically work in teams? In any event, whatever he was doing on duty, I'm glad the murder count did not increase by 1. I wonder if this will be classified as "causing harm"
Bahamianpride 10 years, 10 months ago
TalRussell: It is obvious this Officer was up to no good...When u are assigned a security detail like the DPM Body Guard its called a P job.. That means he has no assigned shift other than when the DPM needs him so he has free reign now that DPM is out of Country. He was either double dipping or doing something personal over there.. We can make the argument that without drawing that gun it could be worse, these young guys don't care, they'll kill anyone...
justthefactsplease 10 years, 10 months ago
"once he was accosted and attempted to withdraw his service weapon, they obviously recognized ‘we have taken on a difficult target’ and they ran off. Otherwise he might be dead." Tal, this is why law abiding citizens need to be armed ... the Commisioner himslef realized that this officer is only alive because he was armed ... that is a god enough reason to arm law abiding citizens.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 10 months ago
I dont know how effective he was. Yes they ran off because he had a gun, but they seem to have gotten the better of him. He's really alive because those guys were bad shots.
I think having armed panicky citizens around town shooting at people who look suspicious, is a road we dont want to go down...I mean did you see the video of that police officer on Frederick St who shot a million shots at the man who knocked him off his bicycle? He lost it, he would have done better to get the license number and call in some police cars, but he lost it, and he's trained to handle a gun in stressful situations. Imagine someone being robbed in front of a primary school and then opening fire to stop the robber?
The police need to do their job and enforce all laws prosecute all criminals. The politicians need to stop teifin and start weeding out corruption in govt agencies and offices, road traffic, police, customs, passport, business license they all need to be cleaned up
Bahamianpride 10 years, 10 months ago
I am a Cop, ThisisOurs this is how it works.. Lets look at Police response to incidents.. If u call the Police your call goes to the Dispatch Center, they have to process whats going on and hopefully a unit is in the area, if not lets just say it takes a minimum of 5 to 10 minutes to get much needed critical assistance...Lets say response time for RBPF is double what I quoted u r dead in either situation...The problem is these guys are not just taking the merchandise and leaving, they are killing and raping... People who own firearms should be honest hard working Bahamians of sound mind, who also undergo back ground investigation and training...I now live in he U.S and I can tell u I have a shot gun and a Pistol and so do many of my neighbors. We are responsible people, but we also understand that each of us need to protect ourselves and Our family... I have lived in this neighborhood for a while and have never heard one of my neighbors shot anyone or produce a firearm, but I know if they need too its there... The criminals have Guns and U have none is that fare... Try a baseball bat vs hand gun and see how that works..
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 10 months ago
Ok, when I said "..would have done better...to call", I was referring to the incident downtown a few months ago not this incident. In that case I suggested the call as a better strategy because of where the incident took place. I was speaking to the ability to make a good judgement call in the heat of the moment. Its hard to do and it takes practice. Police headquarters is right there, its another officer calling for assistance. In that case I think better judgement would have called for not firing numerous rounds into a crowded downtown street. (In general, better judgement would be not firing shots into a crowd)
We have a fundamental disagreement so we will probably not meet on this. You say more guns is the solution, I think less guns is the solution. Use investigative techniques to find the rich Bahamian or Bahamians who are riding around in BMWs or Volvos, rubbing shoulders with politicians, living in million dollar houses in a gated communities getting rich off of illegal gun trafficking. Because they are there.
What will be the test to carry a gun? Who will be allowed and who will be refused? How will licensing avoid the scourge of corruption riddling every other institutional process in the country?
In this particular case I still don't see how the gun helped him. He was shot twice, but I didn't hear a report that any of the robbers were injured. He literally could have been dead if they were better shots....
Bahamianpride 10 years, 10 months ago
The Officer who shot in public for being knocked of his bike is an idiot and should be fired immediately... To fire at an unarmed suspect in public he would have to present imminent life threatening danger to the Officer and public, apparently that's not the case with RBPF.. More guns is not the solution, but considering all the things u mentioned, the situation is jacked up and what are citizens suppose to do, hang around and wait to die. U R right about the illegal guns and the reality is RBPF and Defense force are not going to be able to stop this because of the various methods of entry smugglers can use to enter country and there political connections. Politicians are just as bad as the Criminals, and do u ever wonder what happens to all those guns police collect as evidence, they disappear out the evidence room and end up back on the streets.. If u read the article the Officer produced a weapons, a shoot out ensued, he was struck twice and one of the suspects was struck.. In my opinion, Without that gun, if he just looked at one of them the wrong way, he would have died.. The gun scared them and now they were in retreat and panic, if u ever go to a firing range people do not shoot well under pressure or at a moving targets. By producing that gun he made himself a difficult target and an immediate threat to the criminal.. Criminals like defenseless victims, I just don't want u or my family to be defenseless victims until we can come up with a better long term solution to this terrible situation.. I fear our leaders do not have the political will and the public has been beaten down and live in fear. When the criminals are now attempting to rob cops what do u do
banker 10 years, 10 months ago
Double dipping as a paid security guard?
TalRussell 10 years, 10 months ago
I have now learned that the policeman was on his way to collect the DPM who was arriving on a flight. So, makes sense he would have been armed.
Bahamianpride 10 years, 10 months ago
The Royal Bahamas Police force can set up more Stings for these guys using a Anti Crime plain Cloths Units. We know they go for phones, electronics, Money, cars (Honda), Jewelry, etc... Its a lot of risk but it would be worth it to cause confusion in the criminals mind. Have take down units do surveillance on a Mark and when they make the move converge on them and take them down.. Why be reactive with these criminals, go after them and be more proactive...Set up a sting house and ride around at night, they will follow u home, when they make there move have about 30 officers waiting for them... This way the court will be taken out of the equation because most of these arm robbers will die in shoot outs with the Police..
knowles 10 years, 10 months ago
banker you need to grow up that is not the point an officer was shot and families are affected when things like this happens. We should be praying for the officer and his family and our nation at large. I am so sick and tired of FNMs and PLPs playing politics with crime. We let go two murders go, Oh how quickly we for get. and more out on bail. Please grow banker.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID