BAHAMAS-Police wants changes to bail legislation.

NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – POLICE Commissioner Clayton Fernander is reiterating a call for an amendment to the bail legislation as the country grapples with an uptick in murders since the start of the new year.

“We continue to say, and the law says within two to three years if the matter doesn’t come up in a week within that period, then they should be entitled to be reviewed for bail, but two to three months? We have to look at that,” Fernander told a news conference, noting that some people charged with serious crimes last year had been released on bail “within two or three months.

“Something is wrong with that,” the top cop told reporters, noting that the mother of 16-year-old Davinique Gray, who was murdered in her Nassau Village home last Saturday, was “harboring” a fugitive who was the intended target of the murderers.

The authorities said that the fugitive, Gamaliel Gray, was a suspect wanted in connection with the death of Gerrad Coakley, who was shot and killed at his residence on January 2.

Fernander said Gray was at the residence at the time of the incident and that the shooting may have been as a gang retaliation.

“Officers had to chase him maybe a day or so because we were looking for him. He was running from the police. It appears as though she was harboring him. He was there when individuals shot up the house, and it was so sad that the young 16-year-old was shot. She was aware that we were looking for this individual, and he was hiding out.

“The criminals did their homework. Someone may have communicated with or seen him in Nassau Village at that residence. She put the entire family at risk, and it’s so sad that it ended up that the daughter was shot and killed,” Fernander told reporters.

The 11th grader at RM Bailey High School died instantly after the gunmen fired several shots at a residence on Saturday night. One relative said that a voice recording circulating on social media claims that the schoolgirl was killed because she witnessed a murder and mentioned it on social media.

But the relative denied the allegation, urging the public to “stop making up false narratives.”

The police said Gray surrendered to police on Monday, accompanied by his attorney, and Fernander could not say whether the mother of the dead 16-year-old would be charged for harboring a criminal.