By LETRE SWEETING
lsweeting@tribunemedia.net
A TEENAGER allegedly involved in an armed robbery was fatally shot on Saturday after pulling a gun on officers, according to police.
Shortly after 3pm on Saturday, police officers attached to Operation Ceasefire responded to a call about an armed robbery in the area of Robinson Road.
As officers neared Miami Street off Robinson Road, they spotted the vehicle allegedly involved in the armed robbery. Two men were inside. After attempting to stop the vehicle, the driver sped off toward Washington Street, near Cordeaux Avenue. There, police shot and wounded one of the men after he got out of the vehicle, produced a firearm and “engaged the officers”, said police.
Shortly after the shooting, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) arrived and confirmed the man, said to be in his late teens, had died.
Police said they recovered a firearm with ammunition from the body.
Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings expressed a few words of “caution” to criminals who continue to behave lawlessly.
“I send a word of woe and caution to the criminals, put the guns down, turn the guns in,” she said at the scene on Saturday. “Let’s bring our country back to a state where everybody can enjoy this peaceful country that we so much love. The police remain firm, we will be resolute and we continue to preserve this country for the good citizens of it.”
She said, “Those persons who seek to engage in criminal activity, those who seek to engage police, the police will protect the good citizens and the police officers will protect themselves, as they too have families that they have to go home to.”
CSP Skippings added, “So I encourage those who engage in lawless behaviour to seek ways to prevent those behaviours, because as a law enforcement agency, we’re going to do just what it is that we’re going to do.”
In August, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said officers have “the right to do what they have to do” when confronted with armed people who put their lives in danger.
He added that the police are not “in the business” of letting off “warning shots” in these situations.
Saturday’s incident was the fourth fatal shooting involving a police officer this year, according to this newspaper’s records.
In late August, police said a man was shot and killed when he produced a handgun and engaged the officers. At the time, police said officers from Operation Ceasefire responded to information about people with illegal handguns on a property on Miami Street, between Cordeaux and Balfour Avenues. A man was found on the property and shot by a police officer when he produced a handgun and engaged officers on the scene, police said.
In April, a man wearing a bulletproof vest was shot by police when they responded to an armed robbery after 1am in the area of Delancey Street.
In January, a police officer shot and killed a Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer who allegedly “charged” at him and tried to disarm him.
Last year, 21 police-involved shootings were recorded, of which 13 were fatal.
The Tribune had previously reported that The Bahamas has one of the highest per capita rates of police involved killings in the world, with 11 recorded in 2017, 2018 and 2020.
Two years ago, a backlog of Coroner’s Court inquests into police involved shootings caused concern. The hearings were initially delayed because of COVID-19 in 2020. Later, former Coroner Jeanine Weech-Gomez was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, causing further delays as officials waited to replace her.
Currently, as of September 2021, Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux is the acting coroner.
Meanwhile investigations into Saturday’s incident are being led by the acting coroner and are continuing.