A mobile police officer who sprang into action when a frantic mother reported that her car had been stolen, shot and killed the suspected car thief this morning, in a sequence of events that shattered the morning routines of dozens of residents and dramatically ended a hot pursuit.
The officer had been dealing with a traffic accident on Carmichael Road when a woman reported around 9 o’clock that her Chevrolet Cavalier car had been stolen from the area of the Golden Gates Assembly Church, police confirmed to the Bahama Journal.
The officer, on his motorcycle, chased the suspect through a Carmichael neighbourhood, ordering the man to surrender, but his pleas were ignored.
“The chase came all the way here to Cowpen Road and Faith Avenue area. At this juncture the officer attempted to stop the vehicle. The person in the vehicle refused to stop and knocked the officer down. At this point the officer drew his service revolver and fired several rounds,” Police Liaison Officer Superintendent Hulan Hanna explained on the scene.
Riddled with gunshots, the male suspect, clad in a pair of dark trousers and a dark coloured windbreaker, crashed into a parked Chevy van on the western side of Budget Meat Market. Gunshots had shattered the back window and pierced the sides of the car.
The lifeless driver lay sprawled on the inside.
“He wouldn’t steal anymore,” one curious bystander shouted from a crowd of about two dozen people who had gathered. They were held back by police who had cordoned off the area.
The incident interrupted the stillness of communities that dot Faith Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares off Carmichael Road.
The gunshots had brought scores of residents out of their homes to see for themselves what had happened. Many of them were shocked to discover that a police officer had shot a man to death so near to where their families lived.
A few hundred feet way on Faith Avenue, the Police shot and killed a suspected car thief on Cowpen Road this morning. Authorities are shown removing the body of the deceased. (Photo by Otis Forbes)
ï¾ motorcycle that the officer had been riding lay on its side. The officer, who had suffered minor injuries to his back and legs, was rushed to hospital for medical treatment.
While police investigators collected valuable evidence from the scene, other officers closed down the southern block of Faith Avenue to vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
At one point, the female owner of the car was brought in to identify the vehicle.
Once Scenes of Crime investigators had completed their on-site probe, the man’s body was removed from the car, shrouded in white sheets and hoisted into the Coroner’s waiting van.
Over the last several weeks, reports of serious crimes had dipped, but over the last weekend, police admitted that there seemed to be a resurgence in armed offences.
Authorities didn’t say whether the suspect was armed.
Superintendent Hanna used the opportunity to try to discourage further criminal behaviour, insisting that the police force is determined to stamp out the scourge of crime.
“Crime is a bothersome problem,” Supt. Hanna said. “If you continue to operate in criminality, the Royal Bahamas Police Force; all 3000 sworn and unsworn officers will get you and take you before the courts. You will be paraded in the media. It’s not a matter of if you will be caught, it’s when.”
By Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
