Mr. James Morrison Bethel, a local entrepreneur, who owned T-Rex T-Shirt Company and Creative Edge Advertising, is the nation’s ninth murder victim this year.
According to police spokesperson Superintendent Hulan Hanna, 43-year-old Mr. Bethel was walking in the parking lot of Tropical Nursery on Village Road, when two gunmen approached him. Bethel struggled with the men before he was shot in the chest.
He was then transported to the Princess Margaret Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The gunmen escaped the scene in a light blue-green Nissan Sentra in a southerly direction. The first three numbers of the license plate are No. 382.
Police believe that the gunmen’s motive was robbery.
Although police are following a number of leads in the investigation, Supt. Hanna made an appeal to anyone with information on the matter to contact police at 328-8947.
This time last year the country was in a state of shock after 11 gruesome murders were committed including a murder-suicide in Nassau Village, where a mother of two was killed by her boyfriend, who later took his own life in front of their children.
Most of the murders recorded this year were associated with robbery attempts, as compared to last year when domestic abuse or lovers’ quarrels were the motives behind murders.
Superintendent Marvin Dames, Head of the Central Detective Unit, told The Guardian Sunday that “major” crimes have lowered in intensity.
“When we look at our major categories we are down. When you look at stolen vehicles, arm robberies, those statistics are lower compared to last year,” said Supt. Dames.
He added that it might be too early in the year to discuss statistics Supt. Dames said: “We have a long way to go.”
By Khashan Poitier, The Nassau Guardian
