NASSAU| An off-duty police officer who shot and killed a man in March is back to work, angering fellow officers who claim that due process was not followed.
Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) policy dictates that an officer in a police-involved shooting is to return his weapon, see the force chaplain within 48 hours and be placed on leave until the matter is investigated and a coroner’s inquest is completed.
However, that did not happen in this case, according to several officers.
Sgt. 3600 Johnson, who was attached to the Commissioner of Police as his driver, is currently on a course at the Police Training College, according to sources on the police force.
The police force alleges that the victim killed by the officer attacked him with a baseball bat in the parking lot of a plaza on East Street South.
According to police, the officer was at the plaza when he noticed an altercation in the parking lot.
Police said the officer tried to talk to the man involved but he left and later returned with a baseball bat that he used to hit the officer on his head and face several times.
The officer, who was armed with his service pistol, shot and killed the man who was identified by family members as 28-year-old Nawal Mackey.
Eyewitnesses to the police-involved shooting reportedly gave Mackey’s family a different version of events that led to the young man’s death.
“Someone who was there said this happened in the place where they were playing pool, not in the parking lot,” his girlfriend told the Tribune at the time.
“He was not arguing with anyone else. He was arguing with the officer that shot him. I was told things got heated and the officer ran outside with his girl and people went outside behind them. Seems like some kind of fighting went on out there and another officer who was there fired a warning shot so they could stop.”
She said she was told while her boyfriend did have a bat, he “started to run away from them” when he “saw the gun”.
The man’s mother claimed the officer shot his son twice and when he fell to the ground the officer shot him again. Mackey’s brother is also a police officer.
