Where are the parents of these children? Not just now but when they are doing school work. How much parenting are they getting? How old are the parents?

Much of this is a social issue.

You're so right. I wish that parents of under aged children had more accountability in this country when their children commit crimes (especially if neglect is found to be the case).

There is a very good chance that the mother and baby daddy of these kids need a VERY BIG SLAP!

I am very sorry to read this.

I agree.

Sometimes you have to wait for the rest of the story. The part you don't always get in the Tribune.

Was this some teenager's prank gone bad????? ......... Was it gang-related???? ........ Or was this a quick-hit job for cash and smokes???

This is really bad news for The Bahamas. From the story, it appears that the kids were ordered to stop, and they opened fire with guns.

One has to think that critical faculties are quite impaired if anyone thinks that they can win a gunfight with the police.

This means that the socialisation of these kids is such that they are mostly unreachable. I can understand stealing stuff. What I can't understand is the reaction of the kids. When I was a kid, if an authority figure told me to do something, I would have done it. To respond with deadly force -- ie shooting at the popo, defies any sort of logic at all. That means that the kids would kill a person to escape.

What the hell is this place coming to? God help us all.

As long as we keep beating the snot out of little kids under the guise of spare the rod we will keep producing anti social teens/young adults that use violence to solve conflicts .Most of the time when we beat/slap kids we have lost our tempers and are being violent .A recent 50 yr study of over a 100,000 kids show kids that receive corporal punishment are much more likely to be violent and anti social as young adults .Look at the Nordic countries that shun corporal punishment and many outlaw it.they have the lowest crime rates in the world and very little violence

"Spare the rod" gets a bad rap because it's misused. My four&three year old niece and nephew are deathly afraid of being "put on the naughty list". They straighten up quick. The rod is anything the child considers a punishment that corrects their behaviour. Taking away a computer, phone, tv, grounding, extra chores, no prom etc etc. it could include a physical beating but not in anger and not equated to beating the child to an inch of their life.

These boys in this situation, who knows? Life is complicated and all about choices.

Actually the fifty year study of over 120,000 kids to adult hood ,were kids that were just spanked , not beat in anger or abused .You encode in their brain that physical force can change a behavior in others that you don,t like . I prefer empirical evidence/ studies than faith based assumptions .Just look at the Nordic countries .A study was just released that kids who are spanked even gently at three to four are more aggressive at 5 to 6 ,,

There should be concern not only about the recent number of police involved shootings but also about the numbers of persons willing to challenge the police and engage in high speed chases and even shoot outs. What has led to this? Is it because recent crackdowns have caught criminals off guard with no option but to try escape when caught up, or has the high powered rifle-toting criminals become more bold and brazen and more willing to confront and challenge law enforcement officers. In the most recent incident at least one of the four suspects who challenged police was a 15 year old school boy. Apparently he and his cohorts were armed and robbed a local store of cigarettes and cigars. The incident ended with the 15 y/o losing his life at the hands of police. Many are still having a hard time making sense of this incident.

it's easy to make sense of it.... if you play with guns you should expect to get shot....

You ain figure it out yet John? The Clinton's are putting lizard tail in dey weed.

And these type shootings do not bode well for the police shooters either. They go through many months, years even of battling with their conscience. Some turn to drugs and alcohol and others beat the battle with their conscience and willing to hit their next target.

So right. The longer term effects on the policemen involved can be devastating. From friends and family members questioning them as to if they could have or would have done something differently, to playing the scene over and over again all day and every night in their heads for weeks on end. Not many people can handle that well. I certainly couldn't.

Question - are the armed Police also equipped with video/audio recorders and if not, why not?

Please the police aren't the problem - how many witness's saw this whole thing unfold right in front of them?

Did not imply that the Police were a problem. It is just a good idea. There are not always witnesses. It keeps things clear for everyone.

Good riddance! He won't do it anymore!

it's saddening, but when you point a weapon at innocent people and the police you forfeit your life.

Charge all robbers with murder.

HOW MANY MORE OF THESE BOYS (AND GIRLS) DRESS UP TO GO TO SCHOOL BUT NEVER SHOW UP????? ......... WHO KEEPS RECORDS IN SCHOOL TO MONITOR ABSENTEEISM?????? ....... WHO REVIEWS THESE DOCUMENTS EVERY WEEK/FORTNIGHT??????? ........... WHO CONTACTS PARENTS/POLICE ETC ABOUT THESE ABSENTEE STUDENTS?????? ............ DO PARENTS FOLLOW UP TO SEE IF THEIR CHILDREN ARE ATTENDING SCHOOL????????? ....... THIS IS A CLASSIC CASE STUDY.

Comrades! During Her Excellency Dame Marguerite's Speech From The Throne, I was writing my commentary notes in the speech's margins on each page - including an outline as to new red regime proactive approach in addressing the nation's escalating crime wave. The red regime promised to examine the root causes of crime, not to keep on shooting and killing the alleged criminals.... and at the risk harming innocent individuals resulting from flying everywhere bullets.
I can report that unlike the previous Speech From The Throne - the Royal Throne has not
gone missing. The Royal Throne is safe and secure!

That's what you get. I hope your Ma is proud, and yer pa too - if you ever were told and
knew who he is.

racist ass ...some of y'all same set causing these problems..

Das right John, whitey always been the problem and always will be the problem for people who think like you, the Clintons mussy put lizard tail in your weed too.

if your point was valid then what causes a 22 y/o to set off bombs that injures and kills scores of young, innocent teens. is this also a Black thing? And he know's his daddy,In fact do you know that 98% of all white people murdered are killed by another white person? y'all just racist pieces of rags.. trying to degrade Bahamians and colorize everything at every opportunity. smt

Just so ya know John, the Manchester bomber was a rag, aka Arab, not a white man. I also know that 100% of black people killed in this country are killed by black people.

If you point a gun at the Police, you can be expect to be shot; they are trained to shoot. It is terribly unfortunate that the social problems in this country have reached the point where young people are commiting violent crimes. The Police have to live with this every day to keep us safe, They deserve our gratitude, encouratement and prayers.

Messenger I am aware that, according to the news, the persons that did the bombings were not white, but that was not my point. The point was that these things are not exclusive to black people or Bahamians. 1 Timothy 3:1 says terrible things will happen in the last days. And the Bible warns that the earth will become filled with violence. While some on here are quick to point fingers at the boy's parents or say he probably doesn't know his father y'all fail to acknowledge the presence of the son of perdition, the dragons, the devil himself, the father of lies and murders. Satan

Actually b/c of the 24 news cycle we think things are much worse then they are .Violent crime in America is at a 40 year low and declining , hot spots of war around the globe are much lower than even the 1970, 1980,s ..Even Jamaica crime is down .One of our problems is beating kids and making male children little kings ..

A few years ago there was a problem in this country where whenever police responded to house breaking or shop breaking and were fortunate enough to apprehend someone, the culprits always turned out to be minors. But police soon figured out that adult criminals were using minors to carry out crimes while the adult criminals stood in the background and undetected. If the minors were caught they would receive light sentences or be sent to reform schools and be back on the streets in a matter of months. Unlike the seasoned criminals who probably already had a long rap sheet and would have to spend several years in jail.

Or ... there is a cadre of young, poorly socialised monsters on the streets.

i remember a high profile case. in the end, one of the older teenagers had just turned 8, and served time as an adult.

after his release, he was gunned down before age 30.

cannot really fix them, that guys came from a good family and embarrassed his folks.

>cannot really fix them

I believe this wholeheartedly.

The best that can be done, is to contain them through social means or in extreme cases, through incarceration means.

They love to call you racist on this site, But when you tell them to define a racist and they go look up the definition and they see a picture of themselves there along with both their parents and grand parents, they try to attack from another angle. And so there will never be lasting peace on this earth until Christ returns. As a matter of fact Donald Trump says he is returning from his trip to Europe feeling like a black man. He never thought he would be so hated by the people he expected to embrace him.

John, I'm sorry to say but it is you who have a habit of referring to anyone who's opinion doesn't dovetail with yours as being racist. Aside from certain cadres in the PLP most of us Bahamians moved on from that a long time ago and, as I have mentioned in the past, we have been self ,aka black governed, for the last fifty years and our track record is, shall we say, less than scintillating.Therefore it is incumbent upon all of us Bahamians, black, white and in between, to look in the mirror each morning and commit ourselves to returning our country to what it once was and could once again be.