NASSAU-Police have arrested a suspect accused of fatally shooting a 10-year-old girl.
Investigators are questioning the 22-year-old man about the murders of fifth grader Lorencia Walkes and Peron Bain and the attempted murder of another man.
Police spokesman ASP Audley Peters announced the arrest of the suspect in the May 29 triple shooting shortly after confirming that Lorencia died in hospital on June 7.
According to reports, a group of people were in front of a home at Iguana Way in Bel Air Estates when three men pulled up in a gold vehicle and opened fire.
Bain died at the scene and two other shooting victims were taken to hospital in critical condition.
Lorencia died from a gunshot wound to the head. Peters said the third shooting victim is now in stable condition at hospital.
Peters did not release any other details about the suspect but said the investigation is ongoing.
NASSAU-A child victim of a May 29 shooting died in hospital this morning, police said.
Lorencia Simmons Walkes, 10, is the second person to die as a result of the shooting.
She was in the fifth grade at Sybil Strachan Primary School.
According to police, officers responded to a shooting in Bel Air Estates around 1pm.
Police said that three gunmen arrived in a gold car before firing at a people in front of a home.
When the officers arrived, they met Peron Bain, 33, dead at the scene. Lorencia and another man, nicknamed Flowers, were taken to hospital in critical condition.
Sterling Pratt has been left permanently scarred by an acid attack. His former girlfriend, Minique Bowe-Wyles received probation
NASSAU-An acid attack victim feels betrayed by the courts after his attacker escaped punishment.
Sterling Pratt saw his life flash before his eyes when his now former girlfriend Minique Bowe-Wyles, 37, poured acid down his back on December 15, 2019.
Pratt said, “I felt I was going to die. I didn’t think I would make it.”
The incident left the 40-year-old physically scarred, with second and third-degree burns to 24 percent of his body.
The attack marred the Christmas holidays for his daughters, ages 11 and 12. Rather than celebrating, Pratt’s girls became his nurses and changed the bandages that stuck to his flesh.
He still experiences excruciating pain due to damage to his nerves and lungs.
But the failure of courts to deliver justice has left Pratt “devastated.”
Bowe-Wyles pleaded guilty to causing grievous harm to Pratt at arraignment.
Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister sentenced Bowe-Wyles to probation for four months and ordered her to pay Pratt $50,000 in compensation. Failure to pay the money would result in three months in prison.
The magistrate made the compensation order on the suggestion of Bowe-Wyles’ lawyer Ian Cargill. Pratt’s lawyer, Romona Farquharson-Seymour, was present and agreed.
In court, Bowe-Wyles agreed to pay the compensation in monthly instalments of $5,000 until November 2020.
Despite this, Pratt never received a dime.
APPEAL
Last month, the Court of Appeal overturned the magistrate’s compensation order.
Her new lawyer Krysta Mason-Smith had asked the court to vacate the guilty plea, arguing that it was made on the advice of Cargill.
However, the appellate court said it couldn’t interfere with the conviction because the plea was unequivocal.
But the court said the magistrate didn’t have the power to make the order for compensation.
In delivering the decision, Sir Michael Barnett said, “The record does not in fact reflect any formal application made by the virtual complainant to the court for compensation.
“That application must, in our view, be a proper application to the court.”
Pratt told Bahamas Court News that he feels “bamboozled.”
Pratt could have made the application for compensation since he attended the arraignment.
He recalled, “I was right there in the second row with my bandages oozing.”
Despite the agreement of counsel, Sir Michael said that the record didn’t show that the magistrate considered the scope of the injuries before arriving at the figure.
Additionally, Sir Michael said the magistrate exceeded his jurisdiction by imposing a three-month penalty for not paying compensation.
Sir Michael said, “This was beyond the jurisdiction of the magistrate and leads to the inference that the sum of $50,000 may well have been a punishment rather than an order for compensation.”
The Court did not interfere with the probation order.
Based on the Court’s decision, magistrates routinely disregard the law concerning compensation orders. The orders are made without formal requests from the victim, and the default sentences exceed one month in prison.
Now, Pratt has to sue Bowe-Wyles for personal injury.
It will be difficult because the burn injuries have left him unable to work.
DEVASTATED
According to Pratt, a row over dropping a coworker home resulted in his life-changing injuries.
Pratt said Bowe-Wyles accused him of disrespecting her after gave an elderly coworker a ride from the Lyford Cay Club to Kemp Road. The woman in her 60s had missed the company’s bus, he said.
He said Bowe-Wyles threw acid on his car before pouring the corrosive substance down his back.
He feels police mishandled his case from the start.
According to him, police initially recorded that he did not want to press charges.
Secondly, they didn’t even collect the acid bottle as evidence.
Bowe-Wyles might have a conviction but she can go on with her life.
The former basketball coach can no longer participate in the activity. He is also unable to work out with his daughters.
Pratt said, “They ask their daddy to go running, like they were accustomed to, but I can’t run as long as I used to.”
Pratt said, “The Court of Appeal decision makes me feel devastated because had I done this, the sentence would probably be way different. I feel like crying almost every night. I just want full justice.”
NASSAU-Police arrested an injured man after he behaved aggressively when they tried to assist him.
Officers met Dewitt “Bucket” Butler bleeding from the head when they responded to a disturbance on Palm Breeze Avenue at 11:30pm on June, a court heard.
But when PC 3612 Williams questioned Butler about what had happened, he deliberately bumped into the officer and cursed him.
Then, Butler called the officer a “p*****” and threatened to kill him.
Butler didn’t stop his abusive behavior and officers arrested him.
They took him to hospital for treatment for his injury.
Butler, who also uses the name Devon Rolle, still had his head bandaged when he appeared in court.
He admitted charges of threats of death, assaulting a police officer, obscene language and disorderly behavior at his arraignment before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain.
Butler told the court that he had been chopped in the head during a gathering.
He said, “I got too intoxicated and I get chapped in my head. I really wasn’t in my right state of mind.”
Butler asked the magistrate not to send him to prison and suggested community service as an appropriate punishment.
The magistrate imposed fines totaling $800. If Butler doesn’t pay, he’ll spend two months in prison.
Meanwhile, there’s no word on when the person who chopped Butler will be charged.
NASSAU-A Supreme Court judge has awarded $100,000 for pain and suffering to Corporal Darren Rutherford, who was wounded by friendly fire.
Justice Indra Charles found the Commissioner of Police and Attorney General liable for Rutherford’s shooting on August 26, 2011.
The defendants have already paid all of Rutherford’s medical expenses related to his hospitalisation and surgeries.
Rutherford sued for damages, alleging negligence and breach of duty of care by the Commissioner of Police and his agents.
However, the defendants denied liability and said the shooting was accidental.
The government did not reach a settlement and the matter went to trial.
Constable Daniel Ford shot Rutherford in the shoulder while executing a search warrant on a home at McCullough Corner East. They were part of an eight-man team in search of a suspect.
As a result of the shooting, Rutherford sustained nerve damage. He also suffered minor back injury and an injury to the hand.
To this date, Rutherford still experiences pain.
Negligence
Police had information that a robbery suspect armed with an AK-47 assault rifle was in the home.
During the operation, Rutherford and two other officers entered the home and arrested the suspect and three others. Ford and four officers stood guard outside.
Rutherford’s team informed the officers on the outside that the house was cleared but the search for the weapon continued,
Ford shot Rutherford as he kicked open a door to a room attached to the main home.
Ford testified that he feared for his life when he saw an unidentified man with a handgun when the door swung open, and quickly closed.
Since Ford knew that three armed officers were inside the home, Justice Charles said he should have confirmed the identity of the gunman before he fired.
Justice Charles said, “He also failed to exercise reasonable skill, care and diligence while acting in his capacity as a police officer.”
Justice Charles found the defendants acted negligently by issuing Ford an Uzi sub-machine gun that he didn’t have the training to use.
NASSAU-Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) unfairly fired a senior manager following an internal investigation into a scheme that defrauded the utility company of $1.9 million.
When BPL fired Sean Miller on September 18, 2017, he didn’t know his bosses suspected that he took part in the scheme.
Miller has testified for the prosecution at the trial of the alleged perpetrators of the fraud.
In a June 3 ruling, Justice Ian Winder found Miller’s dismissal “unjust.”
Winder declined to order Miller’s reinstatement. However, the judge said he would order “the appropriate award of damages.”
Winder will hear arguments about the amount of those damages on July 16.
The power company fired the former Manager of Fuels, Performance and Special Projects for “gross misconduct”, four months shy of his retirement.
Prior to his dismissal, BPL executives suspended Miller for a month.
During the suspension, BPL executives did not reply to Miller’s letters requesting “precise reasons” for the disciplinary action.
Winder said BPL’s investigation was “not reasonable.”
Winder said investigators failed to show Miller all of the material that they relied on. As a result, they denied him an opportunity to defend himself.
The judge said, “When he was placed on suspension, BPL ought, in the letter, at the very least spell out the parameters of the disciplinary charges.”
The judge said he believed that Miller was not involved in the scheme.
Additionally, he said BPL did not have an honest belief that Miller participated in the scheme.
BPL relied on the findings of a forensic audit by Ernst and Young. Yet, no one showed Bain the audit during the investigation.
