After surviving a vicious knife attack at the door of his Eastern Road home, Frank Smith, the member of parliament for St. Thomas More is on a crusade against crime, after indicating that he was not certain whether the incident was a robbery attempt.
In what was his first public statement since two masked attackers turned their weapon on him last Thursday night, Mr. Smith said his judo skills likely saved his life.
He lived to tell the tale, but bears three knife wounds, two of which came dangerously close to a major vein and his spine.
“I will be promoting awareness with respect to crime and trying to make our communities and neighbourhoods safer and exposing persons who perpetrate crimes, especially these types of crimes,” he told the Bahama Journal last night. “I will be doing my part even more so and I will be encouraging others to do so as well.”
The ordeal also prompted him to urge others not to allow themselves to become a target for criminals.
Police have expressed concern about the hike in reported incidents in which knives were the weapons of choice. Authorities have also said that they are considering re-instituting their anti-knife campaign.
Police are still hunting for the two perpetrators in the incident involving the MP.
But Mr. Smith, who is still recuperating at home, admitted that the incident has changed him after coming face to face with a “gruesome looking weapon designed to inflict terror.”
Last Thursday, the MP had left his constituency office around 8:30p.m. and drove home. He arrived there shortly before 9p.m., opened the door and entered his house, he said.
As he did so, he said, two masked men attacked him from behind. One of them stabbed him in the back while the other held him by his neck.
He struggled with his attackers before they fled the scene.
While he was defending his life against his two attackers, Mr. Smith told us that his thoughts were consumed with his wife
Sharlyn and his seven-week old infant daughter Shari, who were both at home at the time. But neither of them was harmed.
His neighbours have told the Journal that there has been a slew of crimes in the area inclusive of an alleged rape, making some of them feel unsafe in their own homes.
The MP said he intends to fortify his and implement some additional security measures.
Mr. Smith is as baffled as authorities are about a possible motive, although some persons had speculated that he was attacked because of his status as a public figure.
“Regrettably, such an encounter highlights the negative in our society but underscore that the professionalism and the prevailing Christian kindness point to the good that we must perpetually strive to foster,” he said.
Mr. Smith said he is still baffled as to the motive of the crime committed against him.
Asked whether he feels he was targeted because he was a public figure, he said, “As the police have stated and I’ve stated before, the motive for the attack is still unclear. If they had made comments. If they had said something during that attack that I can conclude one way or the other that that was the case. At this juncture, I cannot say.”
He said the attackers demanded no money or any valuables.
Mr. Smith said he will be spending some time making his family safer and encouraging more Bahamian to pay a greater role in addressing the vexing menace of crime.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
