Man is fatally stabbed during gambling game

By ANGELO ARMBRISTER

Freeport News Reporter

A gambling game over the weekend turned deadly after a fight broke out ending in a young Grand Bahama man being fatally stabbed.

Reports are that sometime around 7:00 p.m. on Satur-day, the duty officer at the Police Dispatch Centre in Freeport received a call stating that a number of males were involved in a fight on Redwood Lane and that someone may have gotten injured.

As a result, two mobile units were dispatched to that location, where they received information that three males were en route to the Rand Memorial Hospital suffering from stab wounds received during the altercation.

Reports furthered that the officers then proceeded to the Trauma Section at the hospital, where they saw the three men receiving medical treatment for multiple stab wounds about their bodies.

Two of the three were treated and later discharged into police custody, while the third male, a 19-year-old teenager of Caravel Beach, was detained as doctors fought to save his life. However, their efforts were unsuccessful as the young man later succumbed to his injuries around 8:00 p.m.

His was recorded as the island's tenth homicide this year.

Authorities say that a number of males were engaged in a gambling game in a yard on Redwood Lane, when an altercation erupted, during which the trio were stabbed. Police have recovered the knife believed to have been used in the incident.

Central Detective Unit officers have launched an intensive investigation into this matter.

The island recorded its ninth murder for 2008 last week, when 23-year-old Joseph Cooper who was gunned down outside Pepperpot restaurant on Saturday, October 4, and succumbed to his injuries.

Preliminary investigation into the incident has revealed that a male wearing a grey hoody jacket walked into the Pepperpot and ordered a phone card.

While he was being served, the victim also entered the takeaway and confronted the other male about some matter, which quickly escalated into an argument, followed by an altercation.

This struggle reportedly moved to the outside of the restaurant, into the southern parking lot, where the male in the 'hoody', pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at the victim, one of which struck him behind the ear.

The shooter then reportedly fled the scene on foot and made his escape into the surrounding neighbourhood.

The man accused for his death, 29-year-old Kema Moss, has since been charged before the courts and is remanded at Her Majesty's Prison awaiting the start of a preliminary inquiry scheduled for March 11, 2009.

Just last month police were busy investigating the stabbing death of 26-year-old Jodie Smith, who was murdered outside Pepperpot Restau-rant on Friday, September 12.

Police investigation revealed while waiting on his order at the take-out joint around 1:12 a.m., a vehicle with two male occupants pulled up at the southern side of the parking lot and Smith reportedly walked over to where it was parked.

Shortly afterwards, he was observed being held by the passenger, who stabbed him several times in the upper back with a knife, after which, the vehicle reportedly sped off.

He was later rushed to the Rand Memorial Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries around 3 p.m. that afternoon.

Smith, who became the island's eighth homicide, was the second man to be killed as a result of a violent attack near Pepperpot. Just days before his murder, 32-year-old Roland Elidor of Hanna Hill, Eight Mile Rock was shot several times in the head and back following an argument at the same place.

This stabbing death is the latest in a string of violent crime incidents on Grand Bahama, which several weeks ago prompted Grand Bahama Christian Council President Sobig Kemp to make an earnest appeal to the youth of the island to lay down their weapons and seek a more peaceful means of resolving their differences.

"Do not allow unscrupulous persons to persuade you into lifestyles of criminality or immorality. These person may somehow make you feel you are valued to them. They may make you feel that they care about you but most of these persons only intent is to use you and get you involved in such a lifestyle that could only shorten your life," said Kemp in an interview with the Freeport News earlier this year.

The Grand Bahama Christian Council president also challenged young people to listen to their parents and those who really love them.

"Listen to them because they are the ones concerned about you. It may appear that they are trying to deprive you of certain things that you enjoy doing but always realize that those persons who love you most are the ones who are willing to deprive you of what you think are basic freedoms and rights but in the long run they are actually giving you heritage for your very own life," he warned, adding that if a person chooses to live a life of criminality they can only expect adverse conditions in their lives.

"Please hear our plea and turn your lives over to the Lord. The Bible says remember thy creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not."

© 2008 The Freeport News