NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A brazen shooting on the grounds of the Grace Community Church Thursday night has left two young men hospitalized and a community in shock.
Grace Community Church’s Senior Pastor Lyall Bethel confirmed that the incident took place on the church’s premises at around 8.52 pm Thursday in a letter to the church’s members yesterday.
“It is my unpleasant duty to inform you that a shooting incident took place on the church’s premises at about 8:32 pm (Thursday June 9), when a young boy ran up on several of the young men from the neighborhood who were playing basketball, and discharged his firearm some six times Two young men were hit and taken to hospital.
“Our security cameras were able to capture several angles and the footage has been turned over to the police,” Bethel said.
Bethel said what made the incident so alarming is that there were several events taking place at the church at the time of the shooting.
“We believe that this incident is probably an isolated incident, but we will be shutting down the basketball court on a temporary basis so that there will be no gathering of young people there until such time as the police and your leadership believe it advisable to do so.
“All the pastors, and several of the Elders and Deacons and other leading men of the Church were there before or shortly after to assist the police with their initial investigations.”
This latest shooting incident at a gathering space comes just shy of a week since the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Quinton Mckenzie.
Mckenzie was gunned down last Friday evening on a public park just to the east of the Uriah McPhee Primary School.
