By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

ASSISTANT Police Commissioner Anthony Ferguson said officers are doing all they can to lessen retaliation killings after rumours of gang wars started to spread.

According to sources, the war began after the alleged leader of the “Fire N Theft gang”, Julian “Heads” Collie, was gunned down in a hail of bullets last month.

The latest retaliation killing occurred Sunday afternoon when 28-year-old Marty Knowles and 17-year-old Frederick Telusma were gunned down outside their homes.

Police say Knowles was standing outside his home when he was shot multiple times about the body by a group of men in a white coloured Dodge Ram truck.

Knowles reportedly ran east to his neighbour’s house and called out to him for help. When Frederick Telusma went outside to see what was going on, he was shot in the chest.

Sources say after he fell on the porch, one of the men stood over him and shot him in the eye and the side of the head – similar to the way in which Julian Collie was killed.

Police recovered 35 spent cartridges at the scene from multiple weapons, including a .9mm and a .40.

A short while later, police received information that three men were shot off Kemp Road.

Police say the men were sitting outside a business establishment on Mt. Pleasant Avenue with others, when they were approached and shot multiple times by a group of men who fled the area in a white Dodge Ram truck.

The three men — ages, 56, 37 and 27 – were taken to hospital in a private vehicle. They were detained and are now reported to be in serious, but stable condition.

A short while later the truck was seen on Abundant Life Road by officers of the Mobile Division who pursued it into Nassau Village where it crashed into a fence.

As the suspects got out of the truck there was an exchange of gunfire with the police, which resulted in one of them, an 18-year-old boy being shot and a high powered weapon confiscated.

Acting on information police went to a residence off Taylor Street, Nassau Village where they arrested the suspects and confiscated a handgun. Active police investigations continue.

Police have confirmed they have five men in custody. The Tribune understands that three of the suspects are 18 years old and one is 24.

ACP Ferguson said while police cannot confirm rumours of a gang war in the Bahamas, he said police are still trying to determine what may have sparked this latest incident.

“We do not want to give credit to misguided people and to criminals because that is what they want. These shooting happened in two different locations and we are trying to determine if there is a connection. We are not quite clear on that at this moment because we are still in the initial stages of our investigations,” he said.

“But there are people out there who know what is going on. Those people need to come and have a conversation with the police.There will always be shootings as long as there are illegal weapons on the streets and we need people not to turn a blind eye. We have men, young men, involved in conflict and they are not able to resolve those and this worries us especially when it is in the public domain because there is always a possibility for innocent people to be injured.”

ACP Ferguson is encouraging anyone with information to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.

The country’s murder count now stands at 44 for the year.