The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE country recorded two more murders on Monday when a man, who was shot last week, died in hospital and another man was shot multiple times and killed while walking off West Bay Street.

These killings pushed the murder count to 127 for the year, tying with 2011’s record for the highest number of murders ever recorded in the Bahamas.

In the latest incident, police said officers were on patrol on West Bay Street around 3.30am when they heard shots being fired off St Alban’s Drive.

When they arrived on the scene, they discovered the lifeless body of a man, lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim’s identity has not been released, however The Tribune understands he goes by the nickname “Inch”.

Police have no motive for the crime and no suspects in custody.

Officer-in-charge of the Central Detective Unit, Chief Supt Paul Rolle also confirmed that a man who was shot last week Tuesday died of his injuries in the Princess Margaret Hospital around 2am on Monday.

Chief Supt Rolle said the victim was shot in front of his home off Hay Street last Tuesday and was rushed to hospital where he remained in serious condition until his death.

Police have not officially identified the victim but The Tribune understands he is Kevin Simmons, who also goes by the nickname “Soca Mobb,” a father of one.

These deaths came two days after the body of a man was found in the trunk of vehicle that was submerged in the Sea Breeze canal.

On Sunday, Chief Supt Rolle said preliminary investigations by police showed that the deceased “appeared to be shot, thrown in the trunk of the car, and thrown overboard”.

He did not confirm whether the victim is 22-year-old Kiondre Hanna, who police said was reported missing by family on October 13. However, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), in a statement over the weekend, said that the car belonged to a person who was reported missing.

Emotional relatives of the missing man were at the crime scene on Saturday as police processed the area.

Chief Supt Rolle said police were awaiting the results of an autopsy and a DNA test before an official identification is released.

Last week Monday, while in the Senate, Minister of State for National Security Keith Bell blamed the Free National Movement for the country’s current crime crisis, adding that had the former administration “been responsive, a great deal of the violence that we are experiencing today could have been avoided”.

He also said criminal gangs flourished under the former administration, adding that the PLP is now left to “clean up the mess left by the FNM’s inaction and deal with today’s crime challenges.”

However while in opposition, the Progressive Liberal Party campaigned on an election promise that it had the answers to crime while the Ingraham administration did not. The party even erected billboards in heavily trafficked areas that said there were 490 murders under the FNM’s five-year administration. However, since being elected in May 2012, the PLP has been plagued with high rates of violent crime and murder. To date from May, 2012, with two more months to complete the year, there have been about 439 murders in a three-year period.

Anyone with information on these latest homicides is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.