A 16 year old girl was shot and killed by police reserve officers late Wednesday night in a shooting that has outraged the entire community and prompted a special investigation by the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Jiselle Glinton, who died early yesterday morning at Princess Margaret Hospital from two gunshot wounds to her chest, was shot while riding a motorcycle with a family friend.
Kenneth Dorsette of Yellow Elder Gardens, the driver of the motorcycle, was shot twice – once in the hand and also in the wrist. He was being questioned by police Thursday regarding the incident.
Commissioner of Police, Paul Farquharson, at a special press briefing yesterday, announced that the special investigative team, made up of senior police officers and a civilian, would immediately begin an "intensive investigation" into the shooting.
Mr. Farquharson reassured the public that there would be no "cover-ups" by the police, who want to uncover the "whole truth" about the matter.
Unfortunately, this is similar to his comments regarding the killing of Jerome Mackey, in December of last year, which led to riots in the Kemp Road area. At that time, Mr. Farquharson is quoted as saying, "…we really want to unearth the truth." No real investigation was ever launched into the Jerome Mackey murder despite numerous pleas by the family for one.
Amnesty International, in it's 2003 Report on The Bahamas, had this to say about the Jerome Mackey affair:
"On 5 December, Jermaine Alexander Mackey was killed by police in circumstances suggesting that he was extrajudicially executed. Police stated that he was shot following an encounter with mobile reserve officers. Witnesses claimed that he was stopped by police then, when he ran away, shot several times in the head and chest. Some witnesses were allegedly threatened and forced to lie on the ground with guns to their heads. Forensic evidence was reportedly tampered with. AI had received no response to its request for information about the status of the investigation into the shooting by the end of 2002."
