ABACO MP: GOV FINALISING PLANS TO DEAL WITH DUMP

from page one was not known to police.

Chief Supt Johnson told reporters at the scene that sometime around 8.45pm police received information of gunshots being discharged in the area of the Fox Hill park. Ms Knowles was emotional as she remembered a gentler side of her son compared to others who knew him from his past.

“He was a good person,” she told The Tribune. “He had his ways and I had my ways too. But if you got to know him, he was really a good person.”

Asked how she was notified that her son was killed, Ms Knowles said she received a dreadful phone call that he had been shot, but was still alive.

“When I got the news, they didn’t say he was dead, they said he had been shot,” she recalled.

“I said okay I’m coming (to the scene) and then someone else called and he said he was dead.”

During the interview, the victim’s mother said she doesn’t know what happened on the night of her son’s death. She and her son did not live in the same house.

Just recently, she said, she had taken Mr Rose to his job, as she said he was working tirelessly to make a stable income.

The victim left behind a son.

The double killing marked the 16th and 17th murders of the year, according to this newspaper’s records.

Last week, with repeated pledges to take policing to “another level,” Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said he intends to reduce the country’s murder count below 100.

Commissioner Fernander revealed his 2023 policing plan at a press conference where he outlined six key priorities to impact crime trends.

He reiterated that police are focused on maintaining law and order, preserving the peace, preventing and detecting crime, apprehending offenders, and enforcing the law. The commissioner noted that this year, and specifically the month of March, police will “flood the streets” in an effort to upset crime trends and tackle gun violence in the country. Police said they are following significant leads into the Fox Hill murders. Four men who are regarded as “persons of interest” in the investigation were arrested yesterday.

Officers attached to the Criminal Investigations Department are questioning the suspects who range between the ages of 18 to 25, police said.

Police added that they are conducting active enquiries into this incident and will provide further updates as they become available.

Immigration

Min- ister Keith Bell confirmed yesterday that officers are searching for a group of Haitian migrants who drifted in waters off the remote coast of Andros after avoiding capture by local authorities. He said officers were being sent to the island to conduct further checks and rescue the group who he said landed in a “very treacherous area”.

More than 100 undocumented Haitian migrants were apprehended on Sunday after their vessel was spotted off Andros on Friday.

The Immigration Department said law enforcement was carrying out routine patrols and surveillance on Friday when they discovered the Haitian vessel.

According to Minister Bell, the boat was reportedly en route to the US.

“This appears to be an increasing trend to avoid interception by Bahamian authorities,” he added.

“A team from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Department of Immigration was immediately dispatched to investigate and apprehend the unlawful entrants. Initial aerial surveillance showed distressed persons seeking assistance.

“Given the remote location of the landing, the unlawful entrants were taken into custody on the 5th of March.”

Mr Bell said following an extensive search of the area, some 120 Haitians were taken into custody. These included 116 men, nine women and two children, he also said.

“I must indicate that information received up to this morning that there are a dozen or so more which have drifted in other areas in the cays and so we are now sending a team back in there to do a secondary check to make sure we rescue these

Mother Of Slain Man Said He Had Changed

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people.”

In the meantime, the minister said repatriations will continue, with $350,000 spent on the exercises so far this year.

He also continued his plea to people living illegally in The Bahamas and repeated his warnings for them “to leave”.

“I further encourage persons who may have family in Haiti, Cuba or elsewhere who may be contemplating entering The Bahamas illegally to warn them not to do so. Persons found illegally in this country or found attempting to enter this country illegally will be deported and placed on a restricted list which will completely bar them from any future entry to The Bahamas for any reason.

“The Bahamas maintains an organised system to allow for the lawful entry and orderly processing of applicants for entry into the Bahamas. This is the only process by which persons should enter the country.”