By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A 29-year-old man was murdered off Shirley Street over the weekend but police did not include the homicide in its crime report to the press.

The victim was identified by his mother, Talita Gray-Clarke, as Francisco Jeremy Smith.

Police were contacted after claims circulated on social media about another homicide.

Assistant Superintendent Audley Peters confirmed to The Tribune yesterday that a homicide had occurred on St James Road over the weekend.

“Sometime around 12am Saturday morning police received reports of gunshots on St James Road and the officers arrived on the scene. They met the body of a male lying on the ground with several gunshot wounds. EMS was called in when they came in they pronounced the body lifeless.”

It is unclear why the matter was not included in the weekend crime report. However, when asked, ASP Peters said it was because the incident did not come to the police’s attention through the regular channels. He declined to say more.

Mr Smith’s mother said her son was shot near Pilgrim Church. She learned about her son’s death when her niece from Freeport sent a picture of him laying on the street.

“She sent me a WhatsApp first saying she can’t gather the words to say but have her condolences. I sent a reply back and I say what happened and she sent the picture to me.

“I didn’t open it when I see someone laying on the ground,” she said yesterday.

“Before she sent me the photo I would’ve called my sister because I know my mummy wasn’t doing well. I thought my mum had passed. So I called my sister and I asked them if they was okay and she was like they was in good spirit... When I went back to my WhatsApp to her, that was the photo and I gave it to my son and one of my friends. I say look and see if that’s Cisco for me and they said it looks like him.”

Ms Gray-Clarke said her son had a quiet disposition and kept to himself.

“Very humble person – just how you see him sitting in that picture I sent to you, that’s the kind of person he is.

“He would walk from St James Road to Town Centre Mall before he would ask someone for a ride.”

Asked if he had any run-ins with the law, she replied: “He’s a young boy. He experimented with drugs and stuff like that but like problems, no.

“Dealing with marijuana and stuff like that….trying to fit in with friends, yeah. But problems to say you know how people want to say you affiliated with a gang or whatever, no.”

This comes after a father was shot dead in a New Providence bar on Friday night. According to police, shortly after 9pm patrons were at a bar located on Martin Street and Blue Hill Road when a gunman entered and opened fire, injuring a man and a woman.

The male victim, identified by family as Lamont Johnson, 45, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The woman was taken to hospital.

On Monday, police said a man was shot dead near his home on Polhemus and Nassau Streets by armed assailants who emerged from a Honda Civic.