By CHESTER ROBARDS

and DANA SMITH

THE 20-year-old brother of a five-year-old boy who was stabbed to death was said to be helping police with their inquires Friday night.

Police said ‘a close relative’ was helping with the investigation into the death of the boy, who sources named as Quan Clarke.

The youngster was found stabbed to death shortly after 6pm on Thursday at his Strachan’s Alley home, off Kemp Road. Police said he was wrapped in a sheet.

He had suffered a stab wound to the chest and officers said his throat had also been cut.

A police source described the community as ‘devastated’, saying the neighbourhood was very close and the death had hit hard. He said it was a particularly traumatic crime scene.

Family members were described as distraught and devastated and friends shared their condolences on the social media website Facebook.

One user said: “RIP baby boy, this isn’t the way God wanted you to come back to his garden but your @ home on his arms! You will be missed!”

Another said: “Very sad day in my country,” while a third wrote: “Bahamas I just can’t believe this.”

Prime Minister Perry Christie said the entire country should feel involved, adding that the country had to develop strategies to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.

He said: “This is a reflection on the country and that is why I’ve spoken so strongly to dedicate resources to ensure that we could put in place some sort of strategy to deal with this.

“We feel very, very strongly for the family. It is just a horrible thing to have happened. It’s ugly, it’s repugnant to all of the norms in our country and the way we do things.”

Urban Renewal was one such strategy said the PM.

“In a very recent speech, I said to Urban Renewal commissioners - ‘Mother’ (Cynthia) Pratt and Algernon Allen - that we have to go house-to-house and be able to develop a profile of every house on every street so that we at least could be in a position to know what we are dealing with and to design strategies that may in some way prevent this kind of thing from happening.

“Using all the expertise available to us to understand what this means, how it could have happened, what it represents, and what strategies ought to be employed immediately - whether public education, whether house-to-house instructions. This country is too small to be able to accept this kind of happening.”