By LAMECH JOHNSON

and SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporters

A WOMAN was killed and two people hospitalised last night following a drive-by shooting at Sand Trap, West Bay Street, the third homicide within 48 hours in the capital.

In the early hours of yesterday, a 21-year-old man had been killed after being shot in the head during an argument outside a nightclub off Arundel Street.

Last night, onlookers gathered across the street from the club off St Albans Drive as police detectives placed some 25 crime scene markers in the vicinity of the lifeless body of the unidentified female lying face down in a pool of blood.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean said that police had launched an island-wide hunt for the culprits behind the shooting incident, which took the country’s murder count to 90 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

“What we can tell you is that sometime shortly after 8pm tonight,a number of persons were out having a social event when the occupants of a vehicle pulled up and fired several shots and sped off,” ACP Dean said.

“That resulted in one person being fatally shot, a female, and we know that two persons, a male and female, were rushed to hospital and they are listed in serious condition.”

“Police are putting a public appeal out that we need to arrest those killers.

“We know members of the public know who they are, know what’s happening. Persons might have seen some things, they know just where these killers live and where they are. And we need the public support, the public partnership to bring these persons to justice.”

Mr Dean said criminals may believe otherwise but they will not get away with this.

When asked if there was any indication that a semi-automatic or automatic weapon had been used in the shooting, ACP Dean said they are still in the “preliminary stages of the investigations”.

One bystander said he had counted 15 cartridges in the area and another reported people had been ducking for cover behind vehicles when the shooting started.

ACP Dean also said they are looking into “every line of inquiry” when probed on whether the incident was connected to a possible gang dispute, though the police will not inquire based on rumours.

“We’ve been solving a number of crimes but we need the public’s help. They’ve been assisting us tremendously. If the public don’t give us information we wouldn’t know who these killers are. And just as they’ve been informing us, we know they’ll deliver these men to us,” ACP Dean stressed.

In the earlier incident, a 21-year-old man was shot in the head during an argument outside a nightclub shortly after midnight on Arundel Street.

According to police, officers received information that gunshots were heard in the Centreville area. When police arrived, they discovered the lifeless body of a man with a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Last night, police released the identity of the victim. He is Coleman Edgecombe, aka “Coldest”, of Soursop Street in Pinewood Gardens.

He was on the Bahamas Most Wanted List last year.

Officer-in-Charge of the Central Detective Unit Chief Superintendent Clayton Fernander said the victim was a “known prolific offender” who was “in and out of the system.” He said because of this, it is “difficult” at this time to determine the motive for the murder.

However, Chief Supt Fernander said police are on the ground working and hope to have a suspect in custody “very soon”.

Earlier around 6pm, a man was shot at a business establishment in the Prince Charles Drive area and taken to hospital with a shotgun wound. He is reported to be in serious condition.

Meanwhile, Chief Supt Fernander said police are still appealing to the public to assist in locating a silver Honda Accord, licence plate number 215220, which police believed to be involved in the death of Albert Rahming, a resident of High Vista.

The 52-year-old father of three and owner of the popular downtown nightspot Via Caffe was shot dead and his bullet-ridden body found slumped in a black Mercedes Benz in the parking lot east of the Nassau Sailing Club on the Montagu foreshore around 7.30am on Sunday.

Chief Supt Fernander said police did not know the motive for the killing of the former bodybuilder and ex-shareholder in the Fantasy Games gaming house chain but said robbery is a line of inquiry they are following.

Anyone with information on any of these homicides is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.

Investigations continue.