Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade said yesterday he will not allow the police force to reclassify any murder that occurs in The Bahamas.

He said when police reclassify an incident originally believed to be a murder, it is done because sufficient evidence later uncovered indicates a murder did not occur.

"This commissioner is not reclassifying any murders," said Greenslade on the sidelines of a Rotary Club of West Nassau meeting.

"I am not going to allow it. I am not doing that. I am not going to allow the public to malign me because of foolishness.

"My position is very clear. If a matter occurs where we suspect there was a murder, we call it a murder.

"If there was a sudden death - we do not know the circumstances; there is nothing obvious to suggest - it is left as a sudden death until we determine an autopsy has been performed and there is something to suggest [a murder occurred], and sometimes you have to wait."

Questions on the murder count for 2013 arose when police recently reclassified two killings that occurred last month.

The unclassified deaths of Elkin Moss, 36, of Jackfish Drive, and Denero Rolle, 30 of St. Vincent Road have yet to go before the Coroner's Court.

Moss was stabbed multiple times after he got into an argument with another man at his residence on July 21, police said.

Police said Rolle was stabbed during a confrontation with a relative on July 28. The men's deaths were initially reported as murders - the unlawful and intentional killing of a human being by another.

Superintendent Paul Rolle, head of the Central Detective Unit, said last week that "just because someone got shot and killed doesn't mean that that's murder".

Greenslade said yesterday he has instructed his officers that deaths be classified on scene as either sudden deaths or murders.

He said where there is sufficient evidence and "reasonable suspicion" on a scene to suggest a murder has occurred police will state that.

"I want to apologize to the Bahamian public, and I want to stand in support of the police department and all of our officers, but there is a very simple issue and I am going to say it again clearly," he said.

"If someone dies in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, there is no fidgeting. There should never be any fidgeting, and I have asked my officers to cease and desist with that - it's either a murder or a sudden death.

"A murder meaning the evidence is there; reasonable suspicion to suggest that something went wrong; there are obvious injuries and the circumstances are such that you can right now say 'you know what, this looks like a murder scene'.

"[When] there is a sudden death, I expect the same attention to be paid, but I do not wish us to rush the judgement. "...There is no such thing as a suspicious death.

I am going to repeat it, no such thing. I have asked police to cease and desist."

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