By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

POLICE in New Providence are investigating an officer-involved shooting Wednesday that left a man dead.  

This incident is the second police involved shooting in as many days.

According to police, shortly after 1pm, officers were conducting an operation on John Street in the Bain Town community when they encountered a man “engaging in the sale of illegal drugs” and armed with a firearm.  

The man “engaged the officers” which resulted in him being shot, police said. The victim was taken to hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. 

Officers recovered an illegal firearm and a quantity of dangerous drugs at the scene, police said. 

However, a woman who identified herself as the victim’s girlfriend, who did not want to be named, said she witnessed the incident. She claimed the victim was cleaning his yard when he saw police. She said the man attempted to run away, resulting in him being shot once in his back. 

She also claimed he did not have any weapons or drugs in his possession. 

She said: “He was a striving and hard-working young man.”

This incident came hours after a man was taken to hospital after being wounded by police during a shoot-out following a car chase that ended in the Freeman Subdivision.

According to a police report, shortly before 8 o’clock Tuesday night, officers were on patrol in the southeastern part of New Providence when they observed two men in a blue Honda.  

The men began acting in a suspicious manner and the driver sped off after seeing police. The officers pursued the vehicle, which came to a stop in Freeman Subdivision in Nassau Village, police said. 

The male passenger got out of the vehicle armed with a firearm, which he discharged in the direction of the officers, police said.

The officers, “being in fear for their lives”, fired their service weapons in the direction of the man, injuring him. 

Paramedics took the injured man to hospital where he was listed in critical condition. 

No one else was injured during Tuesday’s incident. A 9 millimetre pistol and a quantity of dangerous drugs were recovered at the scene, police said.

According to The Tribune’s records, there have been five fatal police shootings this year.