By RICARDO WELLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
rwells@tribunemedia.net
A 26-year-old man became the country’s latest murder victim when he was shot early Saturday morning at an intersection.
The shooting took place shortly after 2am on the corner of Joe Farrington Road near Integrity Road and brought the country’s murder count to 17 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.
According to reports, the victim was approached by a male armed with a firearm, who shot him before fleeing on foot.
The victim was taken to hospital by paramedics, but later died from his injuries.
Police have not identified the victim, but The Tribune understands he is Keyon Knowles. Friends inundated his Facebook page on the weekend expressing shock at his death.
The murder came just days after a man was shot dead as he visited a relative in the Wilson Tract area, and a week after two men died and four others were taken to hospital after two separate shootings in Pinewood Gardens on Friday and Saturday nights.
Last week, National Security Minister Marvin Dames said that homicides are still “down more than 50 percent” compared with last year.
According to The Tribune’s records, there were 30 homicides by this time last year, representing a decrease of about 43 percent.
Speaking with The Tribune outside of the House of Assembly, Mr Dames discussed initiatives the Royal Bahamas Police Force is using to combat crime, the upcoming scientific manpower study of the RBPF, and the recent shooting incidents in Pinewood Gardens.
When asked specifically about the incidents in Pinewood Gardens, Mr Dames said: “We recognise that we do have a problem with some of our young men, a number of whom have resorted to a lifestyle of gangs and drugs and other criminal activities.
“And this is the world that they’re living in, unfortunately. Not all of them, but a goodly number of them. So we’re working as a government to find some kind of solution to these problems.
“One of the things that we’re doing certainly is providing that increase in police visibility in a number of these communities that are plagued with such problems.”
He said law enforcement has seen tremendous success in the crime fight.
Anyone with information on any of these homicides is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.
Comments
TalRussell 6 years, 1 month ago
Lone Killer Shoots "Dead" Victim, 26....shi#, I hope someone caught that on film.
DDK 6 years, 1 month ago
Here we go with the "still down" homicides or should we just call them hits?
John 6 years, 1 month ago
If you hear some of the things that are going on in the streets you may be shocked to know that some of these murders are organized beyond gangs, regardless of what the police may report. But the police have gone back to randomly picking young men up off the streets, locking them up, abusing them both verbally and physically. Some of these young men were employed at Bah Mar. Sandals and Atlantis and others were college students who may now be unemployed because of police actions. These profiling and abusing tactics do not help in reducing but make young men angry and anti social. When you deny an individual his constitutional right to move around the country freely or disrupt his ‘one chance in a lifetime employment ‘ or interrupt his education efforts then you’re giving him no other option to drop out of society, join gangs and sell drugs. This is not policing it is a criminal cop out. Many of the problems the country faces today is from this type of police actions decades ago. And some of the same officers are involved. What doe this speak to their policing skills or the improvement of them?
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 1 month ago
"No!" Seriously, the victim was actually dead when he was shot (?!) One thing is for sure, The Tribune Editor's eye sight and attention to detail are poor.
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