The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A GAS tank exploded when gunmen shot up a house in Pinewood on Sunday, preventing the murder victim and his injured friend from evading the shooters, according to a neighbour who hid himself during the ordeal.

“They couldn’t see nothing,” Granet Pratt said, adding there was “too much smoke”.

“They couldn’t hear nothing after that.”

“They didn’t even know which way to run.”

Mr Pratt’s nephew was injured during the shooting, but is out of hospital and visited him yesterday morning.

However, Eric Morley, 21, was killed while visiting New Providence from Grand Bahama to attend the funeral of his brother who was murdered last year.

Mr Pratt, a friend of Mr Morley’s mother, insisted the deceased was “no bad boy”.

He said Mr Morley’s family is taking his death “very hard”.

“That’s her baby –– she loved him very much,” he said, referring to Mr Morley’s mother.

“I know him from a young little boy”.

“He used to come over here from he was small. We didn’t have no problem with him. He come here, him and my son sit down, they talk. He come here, play with the dogs and whatever here, but he wasn’t no bad boy.”

Mr Pratt said his nephew was shocked because they do not know why the incident happened.

He said none of the boys had a criminal record or were known to police. 

“They ain’t do nobody nothing, and people just come here and shoot up the place like that,” he said.

Mr Pratt said his family does not feel safe living where they are, noting blood stains from the victim are on his property. 

“I don’t know if they mistake them for somebody else because this Pinewood and plenty people live in Pinewood,” he said. 

“People say all the Pinewood boys, anytime they see a gathering or something like that, they think they are in gangs, but they ain’t.”

“So when you home and you out in the front of your yard and you see a car coming through, you always watch the car because you will never know what is gonna happen.”

According to police, two men in a Nissan vehicle opened fire on Morley and his friend shortly before 2pm on Sunday.