Eight months after terror and carnage erupted in the Fox Hill community due to gun violence which left four dead and seven others wounded, the tight knit community’s remaining residents are once again making steps to ensure that their loved ones’ death were not in vain.
Wednesday night, joined by area pastors, family and friends, the Fox Hill Festival Committee broke ground at Freedom Park for the construction of a monument to memorialise the victims of that deadly December 27 shooting; Claudzeno Davis, Shenique Sands, Eric Morrison And Shaquille Demeritte.
At the ceremony Fox Hill Member of Parliament Fred Mitchell said the irony of life is such that these people lost their lives at the very same site that was given to Bahamians years ago to mark the end of slavery, as a burial ground.
“This memorial today will be part of the healing process I hope,” he said. “It is a way to remember your friends and family. They have left us but we hope and pray that they are in a better place, where there is neither pain or suffering or sorrow nor death and dying. They are forever young.
“So today we start another chapter in Freedom Park, the old burial ground has a new use, in the modern era. It is a memorial to four wonderful people, four great Fox Hillians. I pray that we will always remember them.”
Fox Hillians had gathered at Freedom Park to watch the results of last year’s Boxing Day junkanoo parade when the occupants of a car drove by, spraying bullets into the crowd.
Three men have been charged with the crimes.
Also in attendance at the ground breaking Wednesday night was Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis who said through the Urban Renewal Programme, the government has been feverishly working to clean up the area.
He also called on the residents to pledge to work towards peace and building the common good in memory of the lives of the victims.
“It is only as good as you make it,” he said. “Therefore, it is times like these that we need to continue work together and by doing this it gives the community hope and trust for the rebuilding of this great constituency of Fox Hill. Building a strong community benefits everyone, both the people of Fox Hill and The Bahamas.”
Deputy Prime Minister Davis noted that since the incident, resources have been mobilised and a contractor hired to clear most of the bush overgrowth and to conduct remedial work in the area. Long-term solutions through the Urban Renewal Programme are being addressed, he said.
