The killing of Bahamas Information Services (BIS) Deputy Director Latore Mackey on Monday pushed the country's murder count for 2014 up to 83, police confirmed to The Nassau Guardian yesterday - a figure representing a 15 percent increase in murders compared to the same period last year. This time last year the murder count stood at 72.
Police have arrested four men in connection to Mackey's murder, who was shot dead early Monday morning.
Police said officers from the Drug Enforcement Unit, acting on intelligence, picked up the men between 1:30 p.m. and 3:20 p.m. yesterday.
The men, ages 24, 22, 20 and 18, are residents of Palmetto Avenue, Bimini Avenue and Young Close respectively.
The murder occurred on Market Street and White Road around 4:30 a.m.
A black Hyundai Tucson sport utility vehicle had collided with a lamp pole near that intersection.
When officers arrived on the scene, Mackey, 37, the prime minister's press secretary, was found slumped over in the driver's seat with a gunshot wound to the neck.
Mackey's death came after a weekend of bloodshed that saw four men murdered in 24 hours on New Providence.
Police also said yesterday that two additional men were arrested in connection with two recent murders.
A man, 20, of Kemp Road was arrested shortly after noon in connection with the murder of George Nixon, 23, and Charles Davis, 22.
Police believe those killings were somehow related.
Nixon was killed around 10 p.m. Thursday on Lyon Road, off Kemp Road.
Police said on the scene that they believed two men chased Nixon and cornered him in the back of Penn's Convenience Store and shot him several times.
He was found face up on the ground. He was bareback and barefoot.
Nixon was released from Her Majesty's Prisons a week before he was killed, police said.
Davis, 22, also a resident of Kemp Road, was shot and killed on Sunday around 1:30 a.m.
Reports are that Davis was walking along Johnson Alley when four men in a silver Honda Accord drove through the corner.
One of the men got out of the car, chased Davis down the street and shot him several times.
A second man, 33, of West Ridge Estates was arrested around 3:45 p.m. in connection with Davis' murder, police said.
The suspect is expected to be charged with abetment to murder, according to police.
Davis' murder was reportedly connected to two other separate killings over the weekend.
Rickhia Kelly, 20, a resident of Avocado Street, Pinewood Gardens was shot and killed on Saturday around 10 p.m.
Kelly was sitting on a wall through Avocado Street with a group of people, when the silver Honda pulled up and one of the occupants rolled down a window and opened fire on the group with a gun.
Kelly was shot in the neck, and a woman was also hit, according to police.
He died in hospital.
Another man, who had just left his sister's home on Strachan's Alley in the Kemp Road area, was hit by a silver Honda Accord, the same vehicle police believe was used in two earlier murders.
Police were investigating the Lyon Road resident's death as a traffic fatality, but Superintendent Paul Rolle, who heads CDU, said police are trying to determine exactly how the man died.
Reports are that the man was rolled over by the car.
In a separate incident, another man was shot in Nassau Village around 8:45 p.m. on Sunday. He died in hospital.
Outside the House of Assembly on Monday, Prime Minister Perry Christie said he was distressed about the killings and shootings.
He said the government has a lot of work to do and must go "back to the drawing board" to re-examine how its strategies are impacting crime.
He also suggested that Bahamians should be concerned that the carnage is not limited to retaliatory killings among gangs.
His comments and the government were yesterday criticized by members of the official opposition and the Democratic National Alliance.
As it relates to the arrests yesterday, Rolle thanked the public and his colleagues for their efforts and information.
"I must commend the efforts of the police in taking into custody the men who were wanted in connection with these recent incident," Rolle said.
"Officers from the Wulff Road Police Station, Firearms Tracing Unit, Flying Squad, Drug Enforcement Unit and CDU went around the clock and pursued these suspects relentlessly.
"I want to thank the public because we have gotten a lot of information. We cannot solve these crimes without the continued support and help of the public."

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