By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

GANG members refused to answer critical questions about violence in the country when Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander and Bahamas Christian Council leaders met them over the weekend.

Commissioner Fernander told reporters during a press conference that the alleged gang members were in custody for the entire weekend.

He said the men were separated and members of the Christian Council spoke to them along with police investigators.

He said there was “tension in that room with those young boys” and “everybody head is down”.

“We wanted to know why, why you’re killing one another? What is going on out there? What can we do to intervene and to save some lives, and we got no response.”

He said despite their silence, police won’t stop fighting to save the youth and to tackle crime. He said police plan to work with parents and target hot spot communities.

“We will not let them reach these young people that is out there,” he said. “I should’ve had a Bible to hold up my right hand. This Royal Bahamas Police Force will do whatever it takes to save a number of these youngsters who we know if left unattended, these same senior criminals who control these gangs recruit those ones.”

Opposition leader Michael Pintard last week urged the government to have a conclave with gang leaders to figure out how to stop the bloodshed in the country.

The call came as murders soar in the country, with eight people killed so far for the year.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis decried the country’s increasing murder rate on Sunday, saying it “has taken on a horrifyingly new level of brutality and barbarity”.

“Something has indeed gone very, very wrong in our society,” he said at the RBPF’s annual church service on Sunday.

At the event, Mr Davis also invited the Christian Council to hold a National Day of Prayer for healing and comfort.

He said more will be said in the coming weeks about “a strategic initiative to implement a ‘whole government response’ to tackling gang crime”.