the following is an informal transcript of the BPS conference following the 17/12/2024 shooting murder of Khiry Furbert.  The transcript provides an indication of what was said but should not be relied upon as 100% accurate.  The reader is referred to the conference itself for accuracy and can be listened to here.

Good afternoon and welcome to Hamilton Police Station for this afternoon’s press conference regarding a confirmed firearm incident that occurred in the early morning hours of today, Monday, 16th of December, 2024. Speaking to you today, we’ll be acting Detective Chief Inspector Clifford Roberts. Thank you.

Good afternoon to the members of the media. Good afternoon to the Bermuda public. It is with regret that the Bermuda Police Service can [now] confirm the death of Mr. Kyrie Hurd, who is a father of an 11-year-old daughter, and he was a male in his 34th year of life. We, the Bermuda Police Service, wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and his friends during this tragic time.

So at about 12.42am this morning, Monday, 16th of December, 2024, the Bermuda Police Service received a 911 call from a member of the public who reported seeing a male lying on the road at No. 5 Tribe Road in Padgett, Broad Road.

This male was seen lying next to a vehicle. Police and medical personnel responded to the report, where they found Mr. [?] unresponsive. Life-saving efforts were introduced, and he was eventually taken to the hospital by the ambulance.

However, Khiry was found to have succumbed to a fatal gunshot wound. The scene was processed by our police forensic team, and we had crime scene investigators attend from the Serious Crime Unit. And they are presently and still being engaged in house-to-house inquiries, as well as conducting CCTV inquiries to progress this investigation.

Just be assured that the next of kin has been informed, and they are very much aware of circumstances, and a family liaison officer has been appointed to guide them and support them through this tragic moment. As you can understand, the Bermuda Police Service informs us that public safety is our number one top priority, and we want to ensure you that our officers are, and they are continuing to investigate this and all matters.

The investigation team would like to speak to anyone. I repeat, the investigation team would like to speak to anyone who may have seen Mr. [?] in the early hours of Sunday, the 15th of December, 2024, leading up to his death. Be assured, we as an organization will continue to deploy all resources in areas that are affected by not only this crime, but all crimes, where our neighbourhoods remain, so that our neighbourhoods remain safe and secure. And our officers are actively engaging within the community and with the community.

And at this present time, I want to just make a plea. We encourage anyone and everyone who may have any information to come forward and assist this investigation. If you were in the area of [Tri-Route] No. 5 Padgett and may have seen anyone or heard anything suspicious, whether it be a vehicle or a person, between midnight and 1245, just prior to this incident, please, I implore you to please come forward and assist us in solving this crime. We need your help. We would like your help. We want your help to come forward. Don’t be silent. Don’t sit on the side.

And it makes no difference how insignificant you believe that the information may be. Again, I’m going to implore you to come forward and provide all and any bits of information that can assist us. With me, you would have the Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Sergeant 2193 Odessa Phillips.  She’s leading the investigation. And if you have any information, you can provide that information to her at or you may use the Crime Stopper Hotline 800-8477 or notify us via the Bermuda Police Portal at portal.police.bm Or you can also contact any officer that you may know or feel comfortable speaking with and provide that bit of information. Again, I repeat, no matter how small and insignificant you believe that information is, every little bit can help us.

Please do not sit on the side and hold anything in. Help us to help the community. Thank you very much.

And if you have any questions. Members of the media, please identify yourself with your question. Thank you.

Trevor Lindsay, TNN News.

Sir, are you aware of, I’m sure you’re aware of heightened activity within the Warwick, Southampton area. Could this be retaliation by any chance for the last incident up in Cubs Hill or even incident up in Southampton?

At this time, we have no information to suggest that there is any relation. However, if there is any information, we would ask those that do have the information to come forward and provide that to us so that we may progress the investigation and any other investigation.

We know this is not the first time such injuries as this individual received last night. Are you alarmed at the type of activity of a scene being ramped up?

I think the community can always be alarmed by any gunshot incident. They’re all alarming. Any incident of violence is alarming.

Is the police going to have heightened presence in the Warwick, Southampton area?

We’ve had incidences throughout the year. As you know, the police service has always provided proactive patrolling in that area. So heightened areas such as this, as I mentioned earlier, we are actively pursuing all lines in the sense of patrolling those areas, regardless of if an incident has or hasn’t occurred.

Good afternoon. Segui Hendrickson with the Royal Gazette.

Do police know if Mr. Roberts lived in the area or if he happened to have been on his way home or close to his home? And or really how he just wound up where he was at [Traveller] No. 5?

We’re still trying to piece everything together. So at this stage, we are unable to provide that information.

I see. And just given that this was a residential area, could you just again just kind of speak to the seriousness of how this happened, especially around the holiday time where families and friends are more likely to gather together and there’s more likely to be anyone in danger?

Yes.

Good afternoon, members of the media. Again, I express my condolences to the Robert family. I recognize that there are some concerns around the firearms activity, obviously in Southampton, Warwick areas.

This this is one of our more unprecedented years. We’ve had obviously nine murders already since Bermuda Day. Four of them with the use of a firearm, five others with [bladed] articles.

So all throughout the year and part of last year, we had plans in place where we provided more high visibility, more directed patrols geared towards those persons, targeting those persons that are likely to create the most harm in our community. And notwithstanding, we’ve had a number of shootings. And obviously this year being different from last year, last year, I think we experienced something like eight confirmed incidents in the entire year. This year, we’re up to 18 already. So we’ve doubled that. We recognize that.

But also this year we’ve had some success because we seized five [operate] or 10 operational firearms. And we put a number of persons before the courts with serious charge of serious offenses. So, yes, we recognize that it’s it’s been some level of increases in activity in in [sparks] and we’ve deployed in an effort to target that.

Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon. Jasmine Patterson from Bermuda Broadcasting.

Just to backtrack to the incident last night, there was an understanding that there were no reported gunshots heard. Has a neighbour been able to clarify whether there were gunshots heard? It seems unusual.

Yeah, right now it’s early in the investigation. We don’t really want to say too much about what the important or the key things are. If someone did hear something as acting chief inspector Robert said, if you saw something or you heard something, it’s key or critical that you share that with police. If you’re not comfortable sharing with police, then obviously you have the option of using crime stoppers in terms of someone hearing or not hearing something.

But we do we do find that sometimes people do not may not report. And that’s why we’re here today to make this appeal. Rather, what information we have right now, we don’t really want to give up as as [Miss Phillip] is very early in her investigation.

Does this suggest at all that shots were muffled somehow or a special weapon may have been used?

As I said, it’s too early. Thanks.

So there were two incidents of similar nature, no injuries, thankfully, February 27th and May 3rd this year in this very same area. Are you able to shed light on what kind of activity is going on there? Is this a house where drug activity is happening? Why is this happening so frequently there?

Well, as you would know, in Bermuda, we have and we’re not we’re not saying that this is this is linked to one thing or not, because we actually don’t know. However, in particular areas, what we deem hotspots, sometimes there are activities where a young man target each other. So this just appears to be another unfortunate area because it’s not a real neighbourhood.

There are guys that’s kind of tit for tat doing some some firearms activity. But we are trying to bottom that out. You know, with the use of CCTV, with the use of persons more vigilant in the area with high patrols. And obviously, we’re trying to get our community action teams in and around the area to try to speak to their residents to maybe find out what the core issues are.

OK, just lastly, five firearms you mentioned have been recovered so far this year. [Ted], can you confirm how many you suspect are still actively in the field?

No, I can’t confirm how many. But obviously, there’s there’s a number of firearms. What I would say from our recent ballistic test and from our analytical support, it still demonstrates that there are a number of firearms that commit multiple offenses. So rather than there being hundreds of firearms in Bermuda, the firearm analysis is demonstrating that there are a few firearms that are committing a lot of this damage.

So that I don’t know if that adds solace to this, but what we need to do is try to focus on those persons that have these key firearms.

And just lastly, Mr. Furbert, as a father, 11 year old daughter, as mentioned, how do you feel with this happening so close to Christmas?

Well, I’m hoping that everyone should be really disgusted, particularly with an incident that is unnecessary for someone to pick up a firearm or pick up any type of weapon and take someone’s life that doesn’t belong to them. It has to resonate with everyone in this country.

And as I say, said for many years, if we don’t all stick together and try to eradicate this problem or try to tackle this problem, then it’s going to come to a space near us. And so say it, so done. Now we’ve seen, you know, whether this is happening in a neighbourhood, whether it’s happening in a nightclub, whether it’s happening on a beach, beachfront, these things are spread far and wide.

So if people think that or residents, area residents believe that, hey, listen, it’s not going to happen to me and it may not happen to you, but it may happen to someone, you know, it may happen somewhere close to you and the likes. So I always advise and encourage people to help because it’s more because at the end of the day, it’s more of us than them. Any final questions? Yes.

One last question. Last night, it was stated, and I don’t want to be insensitive, it was stated that the individual’s car was still running. How far from his vehicle was this individual? Do you have any evidence that the incident happened inside of his car and he tried to get away?

As I said, it’s early in the investigation, so that type of detailed information we wouldn’t we wouldn’t reveal today.  That’s something that’s the perpetrator and persons close to the perpetrator will be aware of. So we don’t want to release that. Thank you. Sorry, the investigation, like I said. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai