Distraught Shaniqua Brennan, mother of 16-year-old Jeffrey Wright, who was killed in Fox Hill over the weekend, and other residents of the community are calling on the government to assist with combating crime in the area.

“They run my son down. My son was sitting in his own yard when the car drove by and stopped and just started firing gunshots,” Ms. Brennen said on Monday during a meeting at the Fox Hill Parade.

The meeting, urged by Fox Hill residents, was hosted by Senator Fred Mitchell where residents discussed their concerns over crime in the area and pleaded for government assistance with the issue.

The residents also discussed public safety and security concerns in their community.

Last Saturday, 17-year-old Mitchell Munroe was gunned down in Fox Hill.

Mitchell’s aunt, Bridgette Neely, a resident of Fox Hill, who also attended the meeting said, “Sad to say, he lost his life to violence and gun shots. I’m appealing to the powers that be to please and come to Fox Hill to render some assistance to this situation.”

Unfortunately, the Fox Hill community has seen an insurgence of violence over the last month.

Senator and former Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell said, “In the last week, a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old were killed by gunshots.”

The proliferation of guns is on the rabid, not just in the Fox Hill community, but through the entire New Providence.

“What could another 16-year-old possibly have done to another 16-year-old to cause him to take his life? What is worth that? Values have just seemed to gone down to nothing that you can just take someone’s life over something that is senseless and trivial,” Mr. Mitchell said.

“The other concern is, you can’t say it’s the bad boys killing one another because one day the bullet misses the bad boys and hits somebody that has nothing to do with it. So, a neighborhood can’t be living in fear.”

Although the community has a role to play, the police and the government has a role to play in trying to get on top of this problem, Mr. Mitchell implored.

An important issue for The Bahamas and the Fox Hill community stands behind any effort which will be used to bring this to the attention of the government.

“It’s not just the authority. It’s not just the police, but the community itself, we have to take a more resolute stand on this,” Mr. Mitchell said.

Witnesses to various crimes are too, in fear for their lives to come forward to the authorities.

“You don’t understand why this is going on. Right now, the suspicion is that there is a war going on here over a drug turf that’s leading this,” Mr. Mitchell said.