First published in The Tribune on Saturday, June 29, 2007 under the byline, Young Man's View.
Murder: A family's sorrow in The Bahamas.
Losing a family member to the sadistic hands of a cold-blooded murderer is heart wrenching to every family, but the pain only deepens when there is no closure and a police investigation has stalled.
The family of then 24 year old Eric ‘Muff’ McGregor have been grieving his loss without “finality and any comfort” since he was brutally murdered outside the Pondwash washhouse on Carmichael Road on May18, 2006.
According to the mother of the deceased, before “Muff’s” death, he spent the day participating in recreational events with his parents and siblings. Patricia McGregor (Muff’s mother) told me that around 1.45pm on May 18, she asked Eric to take his younger sister and niece to the laundromat, and then return for his father who was leaving for work.
Mrs McGregor, a resident of the western New Providence, said that five minutes after they left, their car pulled up with the driver hysterically blowing the horn. At the wheel was her 13 year old daughter who horrifyingly shouted “Muff, Muff got shot!”
“My 13 year old daughter drove home! She never drove before—I say God was with her—ahh, what a pain, what a pain all this has been!” said the distraught mother.
The grief stricken mother became overwhelmed with emotion as she relayed to me the events of that fateful day—to the best of her knowledge. She said that when Muff pulled into the parking area and stepped out of the car, a vehicle abruptly pulled up and a male passenger emerged, asking Muff “if he had something to say or wanted to see him”. The anguished mother said that eyewitnesses said that Muff seemed rather puzzled, questioning who the guy was as he did not know him. It was then that the hostile individual someone drew a gun and shot him (Eric).
After Muff was shot, eyewitnesses say that he ran into the washhouse and fell behind the counter. As his sister and niece watched (16 at the time)—screaming—another shot was fired at Muff as he ran. The first shot penetrated Eric’s arm, entered his torso and punctured his lung, while the second bullet grazed his forehead.
When the family arrived on the scene, a tearful Mrs McGregor said that she identified herself and asked a police officer what had happened. She admitted that she was panicky and hysterical, but the officer showed no empathy and unprofessionally responded “Ms, I don’t care who you is, you cannot come inside—this is a police matter!”
Sobbing and sighing, she said: “I begged them to explain what was happening and they wouldn’t tell. I even tried to go around the back of the building but they held me down. There was nobody to explain the situation my child was in.”
In a muffled voice, the bereaved mother explained that the family’s undertaker (Deanlee Penn) arrived on the scene even before an ambulance, and that after she was allowed to examine Eric, she (Penn) was the person who told his relatives that he was dead.
What’s worse, says Mrs McGregor, is that the police have acknowledged that they are aware of the perpetuator of this heinous crime, yet they have not arrested him or provided the family with any information.
“We have been told that the police know who they are looking for, they know! I want nothing to do with the Carmichael Road police station because they have allowed this case to become stagnant and cold, and furthermore, when the (alleged perpetrator) initially threatened us, after we reported it, they withheld information”, she said.
She went on: “After a year, this investigation is not going fast enough—CDU hasn’t called as yet, although I’m called every other day by officers from Quiet Storm.” Mrs McGregor also alleges that the police had confiscated the vehicle that her son’s murderer drove, but it has since been released from the police compound.
The brokenhearted mother said that her entire family has been devastated by Muff’s murder. She claims that both her youngest daughter—who witnessed the incident—and Muff’s oldest son have been traumatized.
“My daughter was a top student. Since the incident, her grades have dropped. Do you know what it is for her to be in school, looking ‘round for when the “bad man” is coming to shoot her. She used to go to church, now she is to afraid to even sit down or go. She can’t even go to the mall! If we are driving and a tinted car pulls up, she puts her seat back to hide, because she is afraid of who might be in the car. I’m afraid for her –she wakes up screaming and just wants be by herself!” she sobbingly said.
Mrs McGregor said that Muff’s girlfriend and son have relocated to another Family Island, and that while she has taken her grandson to psychologist Dr David Allen, he continues to suffer emotionally/psychologically. “The teachers on the island say that my grandson constantly draws a man holding a gun and standing over another. He always tells them “‘the bad man killed my daddy!’”
In desperation, Mrs McGregor claims that she hired a private investigator who turned out to be a fraud. However, she did say that one “one top level police officer told me that Muff’s murder was a case of mistaken identity”.
Sorrowfully, Mrs McGregor said:
“Muff’s death was like a rip dilly that just dropped and crumbled. That was a blow for me. The worst thing about it is that the (alleged) murderer is still free. Is this fella going to get away with murder? I guess he doesn’t have a conscience.”
Mrs McGregor expressed her gratitude to the activist group Families Against Murder (FAM), that counseled her family and provided some comfort during their season of grief.
Further, she strongly lobbied for the enforcement of the death penalty. “I feel that the drug dealers go to jail, the rapists go, the thieves and fraudsters go, but the murderers get bail. If it’s on the books to hang—then hang! Every time I turn on my TV or radio and hear someone got shot, it pierces my soul!”
“Muff wasn’t just an ordinary guy. He wasn’t an officer, but he was a gentleman. It hurts me so much that the last time I saw my son on May 18 was in the morgue. He left my house a hearty child with not even a pain or ache, and I never heard from my child anymore,” she cried.
It is only midway through the year 2007, and the country’s murder count has exceeded 40. As a people, we must learn to better handle our differences peacefully, rather than resorting to boorish, vicious means to settle our disagreements. We must immediately and steadfastly examine the sociology of our people, before our society not only becomes a frightened war zone but our prized economy falls into an irreparable slump because visitors and investors are afraid to come to a violent society.
