An island-wide manhunt is on for a suspect accused of an early morning armed robbery and traffic accident in eastern New Providence.

Crime scene tape cordoned off a portion of the road at the intersection at Fox Hill Road and Sea Breeze Lane as police investigated what initially appeared to a three-car collision directly in front of Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP).

But, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) attached to the Eastern Division Cleophas Cooper said further investigations revealed that one of the cars involved in the crash was stolen just moments earlier.

“Sometime around 8:30 (Wednesday) morning we got reports of a traffic mishap here at Fox Hill Road and Sea Breeze Lane,” he said. “Currently we are investigating to see all of the facts. We know that one of the vehicles involved in this mishap is a vehicle the police had interest in earlier this morning.”

“[As for] information about shots being fired, we know that there was an incident earlier that the police are investigating and we got some information about an armed robbery earlier this morning.”

Eyewitnesses told The Bahama Journal that a man was held at gunpoint in the area early Wednesday morning and his blue Dodge Magnum, license plate number 113103, was stolen.

It was also reported that the alleged victim then began firing at the culprit with his shotgun, jumped into a nearby car and soon began chasing the assailant.

Witnesses further alleged that this is when the suspect crashed into two other cars that were in the area at the time.

Police said the suspect then ran out of the Magnum and headed south on Fox Hill Road in the Pine Barren Road area.

According to another eyewitness account, blood was also seen in the Magnum.

Passerby in the area at the time, Raynor Watkins, said he caught the tail end of the crash and saw three damaged vehicles when he arrived on the scene, one of them bullet-ridden.

“I saw two wreckers in front of me, shortly after that the police allowed the tape to be moved and allow the wreckers to take the two vehicles. One was headed south and the other was parked facing the corner in the eastern direction,” he said.

“As the wrecker picked up the vehicles I noticed one of the cars had nine bullet holes in it. One in the roof and eight in the windshield directly in front of there a passenger would have been sitting in that car.”

When tow truck drivers removed the Dodge Magnum from the scene several bullet holes were seen in the windshield.

The car’s front right tire was off and several windows were broken out.

A silver Nissan Altima and a black truck were also on the scene and were badly damaged.

Police also had dogs from their K9 Unit sniff out the scene, but ASP Cooper said it was all a part of protocol.

While police said they were searching for that lone suspect who fled the scene, they could not say if anyone else was involved.