NASSAU, BAHAMAS — As the murder rate continues to climb, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe has revealed that almost half of the people killed this year were on bail for homicide.
His comment comes as a man believed to be in his mid-30s was killed at a plaza on East Street south of Robinson Road on Friday.
Police Superintendent Audley Peters said the man was approached by a gunman who shot him several times and then sped away in a “small grey hatchback type vehicle”.
The shooting was the third killing since last week Monday.
“Person may be concerned with the amount of violence being perpetrated on our streets lately,” Peters said.
“I want to reassure the public that the police are vigorous in their presence on the streets with mobile patrol vehicles and the motorcycle vehicles. We also have individuals who are walking out streets on patrol.
“Our resources are limited in terms of where we can be.”
Peters said: “What we look to do is put the relevant person in place in the various areas that we consider a hotspot. How these incidents would have happened, they’re not generally hotspot areas. They seem to be individual circumstances where persons are targeted and these persons end up being victims of homicide.”
Earlier this month, Munroe revealed that murders are up by 26 percent this year.
“30 of the 65 were persons on bail for homicide,” Munroe said in a recent interview before the latest killing on Friday.
Munroe said those on bail are being watched by police officers.
He said more advanced electronic monitoring would be costly.
“If we wanted to spend millions every year, we could tell them we need you tell us every half hour where somebody is. But the type of payments you would have to make for that would be cost-prohibitive,” he said.
“…Is the cost of the investment…let’s say it costs $5m a year, the $5m, that comes from where in the budget? So that’s really the issue. It’s very expensive.”
