A violent disturbance erupted in Bain Town after a relative of Police Commisioner Ellison Greenslade was shot dead by a police reservist.
Conflicting reports have emerged regarding a riotous disturbance in Bain Town after a police officer from the Quakoo Street Police Station shot and killed an 18-year old boy.
Police reinforcements were called in but apparently could not immediately control the situation.
Police officers, onlookers and members of the media were pelted with rocks and stones. Vehicles were damaged in, what some say, was the worst civil disturbance since the Nassau Village riots in 2005.
Sharmoco Newbold, of King Street, was shot while fleeing from police in the Hospital Lane and Meadow Street area at about 1:30pm on Saturday.
The story was today’s headline news in all three local newspapers.
The Tribune reports that the young man was shot in the head. The Punch reports that he was shot in the chest and belly.
Three police officers; a sergeant, a PC and a corporal approached a group of men suspected of engaging in an illegal game of dice-craps on Hospital Lane, near Meadow Street.
According to the Punch, Mr Newbold allegedly pulled out a gun and opened fire on the three cops. The police corporal fired back. Newbold died at the scene.
The dead gunman was a close relative of commissioner Greenslade, who apparently grew up on Hospital Lane.
A mob gathered around the police officers as crime scene investigators were trying to examine the body.
Police were pelted with rocks and bottles. The rioters allegedly firebombed a police car and damaged three other police vehicles. A ZNS TV van and a funeral hearse were damaged and four police radio handsets, valued at $3,500 each, were stolen.
When the police Rapid Response Unit failed to show up, Commissioner Greenslade ordered all available police vehicles to the scene. By 3:00pm there were over 300 police officers in the Hospital Lane area.
National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest was also at the scene.
Commissioner Greenslade and other police officers were allegedly injured in the fighting that ensued. However, no police officers were seriously injured.
The police version of the story differs considerably from eyewitness accounts.
Commissioner Greenslade told reporters that officers were on patrol in the area of Hospital Lane and Meadow Street when they saw a young adult male with what “appeared to be a weapon in his possession.”
Mr Greenslade said that when the officers approached the young man “shots rang out from both sides…”
Police have confirmed that Mr Newbold, whose father is a police sergeant, was out on bail on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
Mr Greenslade tried to downplay the incident, saying that it was merely “threats offered by some minority segments of the community.”
“I don’t want to give the public the impression that we’ve got a situation that’s out of control and we can’t manage. That’s not what happened here. Tempers flared, it was a bad situation, you get a crowd, you get lots of people, you have misinformation and sometimes it gets a little unnerving,” the Tribune reports the Commissioner as saying.
While onlookers called it a riot, Mr Greenslade said it wasn’t.
“We had no riot, I want to be very clear in saying that to the public – no riot, nothing of that nature but a community that is very concerned, very distressed and I recognise as a law enforcement agency, we have a lot of work to do in Bain Town,” Mr Greenslade told reporters.
It is reported that armed police officers showed extreme restraint as they were attacked physically and verbally by an increasingly enraged crowd.
Greenslade also said that no police patrol cars suffered fire damage, however, the Tribune reported that a police car had been “burnt to a shell”.
Respect for police officers in The Bahamas has been evaporating for several decades, ever since the drug-fueled 1980’s when many on the police force were involved in selling drugs or protecting those who do.
Corruption on the force is rampant with some saying that corrupt officers now out number good officers.
