LAST night's candlelit vigil for the six men shot last week. Photo: Racardo Thomas
By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT
tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net
A CANDLELIGHT vigil was held in the Kemp Road area yesterday for six men who lost their lives in a violent execution in the area last Thursday.
Renardo Bastian, also known as “Crack Teeth”, Travis Cooper, Maurice Pinder, Kendal Lord, Delano Smith, and Dequant Brown were shot at the intersection of Jerome Avenue and Chesapeake Road when four men opened fire on them, killing them and injuring a 19-year-old woman and a toddler.
The men were killed shortly after being released from police custody for firearm possession. Police suspect the shooting was gang related.
Members of the Kemp Road community came out in droves last evening in memory of the fallen residents.
Organisers of the event, Khandi Gibson, of FOAM; Pastor Eric Fox of Urban Renewal and Mandell Miller of the National Drug Council said there is no time frame in grief and the event was to simply give the family hope.
“Even though a kind word or a gesture cannot make them feel better, we want to just give them hope,” Ms Gibson said. “Tonight was like a revival. I came to the area on Saturday and I met with the six families and I told them that I will have a candlelight vigil and Pastor Eric Fox and Mandell Miller came on board. I got some sponsors like Monique Burrows from Abaco, we had the commissioner of police who gave us permission to have the event. We want to thank them.”
This is not the last of events to celebrate the lives of the murdered men. The organisers and members of the Kemp Road community will go to the site where the men were killed today at 5.30 pm and place teddy bears there.
After this they will go to Kemp Road Ministries at 6pm for a church service. On Monday at 10 am, Urban Renewal through Social Services will mount six wreaths in memory of the men at the spot where they were executed.
Pastor Fox spoke to the future of the children affected as far as support is concerned.
“Urban Renewal, through myself, will provide support for the children and families of these men on a continuing basis,” he said. “This is not something new Urban Renewal is doing. We have been doing it all along. Now we are going to beef it up in all the communities that we do grief counselling and anger management in.”
Those who came out were given food items and candles.
There was heavy police presence at the vigil which swiftly began to wind down at 8pm.
Comments
John 3 years ago
As time flies by swiftly and no suspects are named in this bloody massacre, conclusions can be drawn. Especially after the police have not even said that they are following strong leads in the matter. Remember at one point they did say that the plates on the vehicle used in the bloodbath were not the ones assigned to that vehicle and they were attempting to track both the owners of the vehicle and the plates. Well one can conclude that either the police are doing poor police work in this matter or, as 90 percent of the population believes it was the police that carried out the executions. The ‘monsters’ that Marvin Dames so aptly described must then be amongst the ranks of the police force. And there was no retaliation because the monsters Dame described are not in the community but amongst the ranks. There may be hardened criminals, yes, some with some real scary criminal records and careers. But are they interested in mass murder? And who was responsible for these six men being in the right place in the right time? Will there be a retaliatory action? Or will there be a staged retaliation to convince the public that ‘there are monsters in those there hills? And to further remove suspicion from over the police force that they were not involved. Will this incident just dry up and blow away or will the Bahamian public not rest and not leave any stone unturned until they find answers?
John 3 years ago
You are a murderer by nature. A jealous and dangerous one at that. How many of these men were charged with murder or even attempted murder? You just confirmed what most Bahamians already know. There is lead in the water! Throughout the Caribbean. Marvin Dames is an agent of a foreign country and an enemy of this state. But he will be made to account.
Sickened 3 years ago
People really have strong feelings about drug dealers and violent criminals being killed. It's an occupational hazard for gang bangers - they knew they could be shot down at anytime. The sooner the better as they can no longe do harm on our streets. Hopefully the assassins get their judgement day soon as well. We have enough bad people on earth. Now we have 6 less.
John 3 years ago
It’s a pity that you still want to paint that narrative when the US has licensed pharmaceuticals and doctors distributing billions of opioids prescriptions and killing out thousands of Americans (mostly white) annually. And many who get addicted to these opioids have to be given medical marijuana to wean them off those opioids and probably save their lives. The travesty of it all is whilst America is trying to get Black folk to bow down and worship a false Jesus with blonde hair and blue eyes, they are busy killing out Black people around the world because their intelligence (The Word) tells them that the true Messiah is coming to earth (some say he has already come), the ‘word’ became flesh and dwells among men. And Satan ( and those who follow him Babylon). Know they have a short time and they will be judged. So they wreak havoc on the rest of civilization. America has declared war to cover their covert drug operations. They have killed sitting presidents who tried to intervene on their drug operations and now they over 4 decades have declared war on nations , Lille The Bahamas, whilst billions of tones of illicit drugs, including cocaine are trafficked into that country annually. Sitting judges in that country were found to be involved in trafficking guns to The Bahamas and Central America and The Caribbean. And escaped punishment.
Cobalt 3 years ago
Should’t you be in Sandilands? I apologize for all the bad things I’ve said about you. I didn’t realize that you were a psych patient.
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