By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

TALL Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday called on the government to “fully implement the laws we have on the books” and hang convicted murderers.

Mr Miller said while some would disagree with “the execution of murderers”, something must be done to combat the “menace” of crime.

Mr Miller’s statements came after 58-year-old Theophilus Thompson was shot multiple times and killed while dropping his girlfriend home late Friday night to become the country’s 26th murder for the year.

A week earlier, 31-year-old Sean Neville, the son of renowned forensic psychologist Dr Mike Neville, was shot and killed near his home in the Culbert’s Hill area off Prince Charles Drive.

Referring to Mr Neville’s death in the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr Miller said: “Something has to take place in this country. The violence must stop. We need to fully implement the laws we have on the books. I know some in here don’t agree with the execution of murderers, but you know we like to emulate the United States of America to the ‘T’,” he said, before listing off death penalty statistics in the US.

The last time a convicted murderer was executed in The Bahamas was in January 2000, when David Mitchell was hanged.

“...You tell me, how are we going to combat this menace that is among us? How do we deal with it? When you kill a young man like Sean, these people don’t understand that you’re destroying three generations. You’re destroying the parent, you destroy the siblings, and you destroy the grandchildren.

“Something has to be done. We must rid our country of this menace that is among us. It has to be eradicated, by any means possible. It appears on the streets today Mr Speaker, that it’s either them or us. And if we don’t deal with them, Mr Speaker, just as the sun rises in the morning, they will deal with us.”

According to police reports, Mr Thompson was sitting in his car with his girlfriend in front of her home on Podoleo Street, when a group of four or five men armed with handguns opened fire on the home.

The suspects then fled on foot in an unknown direction.

Mr Thompson was shot multiple times in the chest, but his girlfriend was unharmed. However, a man and a woman who were standing a few feet away from the home were shot — the man in his thigh and the woman in her leg. They required hospital treatment.

Mr Thompson sped off in an attempt to drive to the hospital, but crashed a short while later on Montrose Avenue.

He was taken to hospital by ambulance, but died of his injuries around 1am on Saturday.

“None of us is immune to the violence that is on our streets,” Mr Miller said yesterday. “And a good example is what happened with the gentleman who was just giving the young woman a ride. A stray bullet hit him. It has to stop, Mr Speaker. We have an obligation to bring sanity back for our country. We have an obligation to protect and enhance the welfare – that’s the first tenet of the government – to protect its citizens. By any means necessary.

“I urge that we revisit this situation with all these useless deaths in our country and do what needs to be done to protect our people.”

On February 27, Mr Neville’s lifeless body was found lying near his home outside a grey, rental vehicle with several gunshot wounds in his upper body in Woodlawn Way when police arrived. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers also found a handgun with several live rounds of ammunition in his possession.

Mr Neville lived with his parents and his father, Dr Neville, told The Tribune he was at home writing on his computer when he heard the gunshots that claimed the life of his son.

The murder shocked area residents, among them St Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, who said he was horrified by the report, adding that the number of break-ins and armed robberies in the Winton area had increased in recent months.