The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AS Maxine Roberts was making funeral arrangements for her murdered 14-year-old daughter Jeffonya Rolle, she did not imagine exactly one month and a day later she would be doing the exact same thing for her son Tekoyo "Minky" McKinney.

Seven years after being struck by that double tragedy, a tearful Ms Roberts told The Tribune she still grieves for her young daughter and son who would have been almost 33 years old by now.

On April 14, 2011, two gunmen shot McKinney as he stood in front of a residence on Cordeaux Avenue and Minnie Street, police said. At the time, some area residents claimed a high-powered weapon was used to kill McKinney. However, police said the men were armed with handguns.

A month earlier on March 14, 2011, Jeffonya Rolle was killed in the early hours of the morning as she and her father pulled up to a family residence in Garden Hills.

The R M Bailey Senior High School student, who aspired to be a lawyer, was not the target of the shooting.

The bullet that fatally ended her life was intended for her older brother - Minky, Ms Miller said.

Still grappling with these circumstances, the 54 year old said her grief has been much more painful and lingers because no one has ever been charged for either of the murders although it is believed both perpetrators have since died.

Although she says she's working on forgiving them even in death, Ms Roberts to this day sees this country's justice system as woefully failing. She also pointed to the state's response to the families of murder victims saying she was promised follow up calls and counselling from police after each ordeal, but this never happened.

"Well I can truly say I didn't want to do nothing," Ms Roberts said of her ordeal in an emotional interview at Families Of All Murdered Victims' office in Nassau Village. "I didn't want to see anyone, I didn't want to eat, bathe or do nothing. I just wanted to stay to myself, but with encouragement from family members and Khandi Gibson (FOAM's founder) and also with me going to church and reading my Bible I am more focused on forgiving the murders too.

"If it was not for God I don't think I would have been here now because there were times when I was contemplating suicide or I could have been dead maybe heart attack and so I tend to always put God first and I know with me putting him first definitely I would get through it."

Asked about the justice system, she said: "Honestly, for me there is no justice. The police force…no. I don't know. It sucks, sorry to say.

"They don't care. When my 14-year-old daughter was murdered they told me 'we are going to give you a call. We are going to let you know what is what' and so forth, nothing never happened…no phone calls, no nothing.

"As a matter of fact, they told me they were going to set me up with someone for counselling and that never happened so, no, it sucks."

She is not the only one who feels that way.

Ms Gibson who has had her very own brush with tragedy has similar sentiments.

When asked her view of the Minnis administration's crime fighting actions after a year in office, the community activist said the police seemingly have one mandate and, according to her, it is wrong.

"Under the previous administration, it was more gang violence or people turning against people," Ms Gibson said. "Under this administration, it looks like they have one mandate and you could see from the numerous police shootings so far.

"I don't think it's right because at the end of the day, and I am not bad mouthing the police, but fair is fair and right is right. Whenever a police shooting (happens), once a police says the person has a gun or he charged at them with a weapon or what is perceived to be a weapon, that's where it starts and that's where it ends. You can't even question that.

"If criminals on criminals kill each other, it is always the police saying to please contact them with the information, but when a police kills somebody that same mandate doesn't happen. They don't question that or say if someone was on the scene they should come forward with the information. That matter automatically goes to the coroner," Ms Gibson said.

"I have families today who'll say 'Khandi, my loved one was killed and the police officer who killed my loved one he is still on the job'. But whenever someone else's name is called and it's a criminal on criminal or civilians we go all out and hate them but we don't hate the police."

Some have expressed concerns about police shootings in recent months as well as the pace of the Coroner's Court, where these fatal incidents are investigated.

Police-involved shootings have increased over the past year.

Since November 2017, 11 people have been fatally shot by the police.

National Security Minister Marvin Dames has tried to temper concern over police killings, insisting police are responding in kind to what they encounter on the streets.

According to Mr Dames, in February well over 80 per cent of serious crimes committed in The Bahamas are done so with the use of firearms.

At the time, he said: "That is what you are faced with. And so, if an officer encounters someone on the streets, and he or she feels threatened, I can't make that decision for them. They have to make that for themselves.

"I don't think that you would expect for me to stand here and accuse every officer of a shooting. This is the world that we are living in today. The only thing that we want to ensure, is that when a life is taken or someone is shot, that there is justifiable reason for it."

Mr Dames said the record would show that police have been forthcoming with information in these cases.

But whatever the police are doing, murders are on the decline by 45.2 per cent.

The minister has also promised that those who commit crime will be brought to justice.