Another brazen attempt to rob a business establishment came just two weeks after a daring attempted armed robbery and exchange of gun shots between police and the alleged suspects at a business establishment. 

This time the standoff between the police and two suspects resulted in police killing one of the suspects and wounding the other.

Police thwarted the attempted armed robbery of the Royal Bank of Canada, Mackey Street, yesterday. 

The incident had a similar undertone to the attempted armed robbery of Portraits A La Sawyer on Carmichael Road on February 10.

Chief Superintendent of Police Solomon Cash said gunshots were exchanged between 

Royal Bahamas Police Force officers in plain clothes and uniformed. 

“Sometime this morning, police received intelligence relative to an armed robbery that [was] planned to happen here at the Royal Bank. The information was checked by officers. Hence, officers acted on that information, came to this location,” Chief Supt. Cash said.  

“Based on the intelligence of the officers, they saw a vehicle fitting the profile as described by the information. The officers engaged that vehicle [and] as the officers engaged, two persons emerged from the suspected vehicle.

“One of the armed men opened fire on the police. The police, being in fear of their lives, opened fire on the suspected person after alerting him that they were officers.” 

While Chief Supt. Cash could not say how many shots were fired, The Journal observed some 45 cone markings where shell casings were collected. 

Chief Supt. Cash confirmed that one man was fatally wounded as a result of that exchange and the other suspect was transported to the hospital. 

He added that there is evidence that this incident may have been a part of a ring and while he said two persons were involved, police intelligence suggests that there were several other persons involved in the incident. 

The chief superintendent said there remains concern over the number of heists in recent days.

“There is concern from the officers, but I can tell you we are relentless in what we do. We are currently investigating several of these matters,” Chief Supt. Cash said.

“As a matter of fact, we can say to you that we have already identified several possible suspects who are on the run. As you know, we have produced several flyers for the media and we are asking the members of the public to assist us in locating these suspected persons. 

“What we want to say to private citizens [is] that if they see the police engaging in any activities, we ask them to remove themselves because who knows, when you are dealing with suspected persons, most of the time in the process of them trying evade law enforcement, they might just open fire to prevent us from capturing them. 

“So, we would ask members of the public to not engage themselves if they see police in active investigation.” 

According to Chief Supt. Cash, no officers or anyone else was injured in this incident and a weapon was recovered on the scene. 

Just last Monday, a suspect was arraigned in Magistrate’s Court in connection with the attempted armed robbery of Portraits A La Sawyer. The second suspect was arraigned last Thursday. 

Both suspects return to court on April 1.