It took Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade less than a month to investigate and recommend that charges be brought against an assistant superintendent of police for the role he played in allowing a man in custody for drug possession to be married behind bars and now a Grand Bahama family is asking why they have had to wait more than a year for answers into the death of 34-year-old Job Munnings who was shot and killed by police in a case of mistaken identity.
Spokesman for the family President of Families for Justice Rev. Glenroy Bethel said since Munnings, who was a local reggae artist and went by the stage name Mr. Versatile, was killed on January 23, 2013 the family has gotten no updates on the state of the investigations.
“This man was murdered,” Rev. Bethel said. “Job Munnings was murdered and what we are simply saying is how is it that the minister of national security and Mr. Greenslade can act promptly in dealing with their officers when there was a breach in terms of that marriage taking place inside the police station.
“But in Grand Bahama a team of officers went to Abaco and gunned down a civilian, stated that it was the wrong man and Mr. Greenslade didn’t act.”
Rev. Bethel said it has been too long that the family has been waiting to get some answers and demanded that they receive the justice they deserve.
On the day in question a team of officers out of Grand Bahama flew into Abaco in search of a suspect when they came across Munnings and shot him.
Initially police reported that Munnings got into a scuffle with the officers but later admitted that they had the wrong guy.
“He was the wrong man,” the Families for Justice president added. “There was a time when the commissioner of police went public to say that it was a mistaken identity and that it wasn’t the man they were looking for.
“Since that, it was in the hands of the commissioner and he informed the family that they would have gotten to the bottom of what had transpired.”
In fact, Rev. Bethel said the family was told that the matter was transferred to the Coroner’s Court.
However, during a visit to the capital last week, they were told that the court had no record of the Munnings case.
“Mr. Greenslade hasn’t done anything, the minister of National Security hasn’t done anything neither has the assistant commissioner of police here in Grand Bahama,” Rev. Bethel said. “This family is calling for justice.”
Rev. Bethel said the family feels like they were deceived into believing that the investigations were still ongoing and added that they say they will not stop until Mr. Versatile’s death accounts for something.