YOUNG MAN ELECTROCUTED IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT IN FREEPORT

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A YOUNG man is dead on Grand Bahama following an industrial accident at Freeport Harbour yesterday.

The incident occurred shortly after 11am at Executive Marine Management, when a 29-year-old employee was electrocuted when the vehicle he was operating came in contact with a power line. Police officials went to the scene to investigate.

Preliminary police investigations revealed that the employee was operating a heavy-duty forklift tractor when it accidentally touched the power line, which was attached to the utility poles. Emergency Medical Services technicians were dispatched to the scene. They examined the victim, but found no sign of life. After conducting their investigations, morticians arrived and took the body to the morgue at Rand Memorial Hospital. Executive Marine Management is a private company providing ship services for vessels calling at Freeport.

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.