Current police statistics indicate that murder and traffic fatality rates for Grand Bahama so far this year are up significantly compared to the same period last year.
Police report that for the first five months of 2005, six murders have occurred on Grand Bahama, compared to three murders between January and May of 2004.
Chief Superintendent of Police Basil Rahming told The Bahama Journal on Tuesday, “Three of [the murders] can be classified as drug related and the other three as domestic murders.
“The one commonality I see in all six of them [is] young Bahamian males who lack conflict resolution skills and who seem to want to resort to violence.”
Mr. Rahming pointed out that although there has been a comparative increase in murders so far this year, the increase does not reflect either a worsening of drug or gang violence ﾖ both of which he says police have in hand for the most part.
All of the murder victims so far this year were men, four of whom police say was killed with some type of firearm, one bludgeoned to death and the most recent one killed with a knife.
Last year, police said six of the 10 homicides on the island were committed with handguns, two with knives.
Earlier this year, Superintendent Glen Miller, officer in charge of the islandﾴs Central Detective Unit indicated that local investigators last year detected a trend where the bodies of murder victims were being moved from crime scenes and placed at different locations on the instruction of the alleged killers in the incidents.
Mr. Rahming said so far this year, none of the murders showed that pattern.
In 2004, police detected nine of the 10 murders with investigators still in search of the killers in the shooting death of Sean Seymour back on the night of December 27.
This year, Mr. Rahming said suspects have been brought before the courts charged in four of the six murder cases.
Investigators on Tuesday were in search of Anthony Delva, 22, a Haitian Bahamian male police say is wanted in connection with Friday nightﾴs stabbing death of Wisco Jean Baptiste, 22.
In addition to the comparative increase in murders, the number of traffic deaths on the island so far this year are higher than the same period in 2004.
Between January and May 2005, five people have died on the islandﾴs streets compared to three for the same period last year.
Two male drivers, a female driver, a male passenger and a female pedestrian lost their lives in traffic accidents on the island.
Investigators were still in search of the driver in the hit and run accident that claimed the life of local proprietor, Lydia Dames, the pedestrian killed back in late March.
The most recent traffic death that occurred Saturday night in Eight Mile Rock came on the heels of a spate of serious traffic accidents over the past few weeks.
“We have had over 40 serious traffic accidents in the past two weeks,” Mr. Rahming pointed out.
Last year, nine people died on the islandﾴs streets ﾖ three drivers, five passengers and one cyclist, according to police statistics.
This year, two men were charged before the courts in separate cases of killing in the course of dangerous driving in connection with two of last yearﾴs fatal car crashes.
Many of the fatal accidents involve single car collisions into roadside objects or two car collisions along main thoroughfares.
Mr. Rahming said drivers, taking advantage of the islandﾴs long unencumbered roads are continuing to speed and ignore traffic signs.
Sharon Williams, The Bahama Journal
