Automated transcript of the conference – accuracy is not guaranteed.  The conference can be watched/heard here.

… going to be hearing first from the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Darren Simons, as well as Detective Chief Inspector Jason Smith of the Serious Crime Unit, Commissioner.

Good morning. Last night, our community was shattered by an act of violence at the Legends Bar that claimed two lives and left three others injured.

I offer my thoughts and prayers to those who were injured, and my deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. These victims aren’t just statistics, they were sons, daughters, friends, and neighbours. Their loss leaves a hole in our community that cannot be filled.

The details of what happened are stark. Approximately 10.30pm, four individuals on motorcycles arrived at Legends Bar and opened fire at the patrons inside. Two people were killed, a young woman and a young man, and three others were wounded.

Our officers responded immediately, secured the scene, and began what is now an intensive investigation. To the families affected, we have assigned a dedicated Family Liaison Officer who will remain with you throughout the process. They are there to support you, answer your questions, and keep you informed as our investigation progresses.

To our community, I understand the fear and anger you may feel. This senseless violence tears at the fabric of our community and our way of life. I want to assure you that we have deployed all available resources to this investigation to bring calm.

Somerset, you are a tight-knit community. You know each other and you look out for each other, and I am specifically asking you to help us bring justice to those taken far too soon. Our Forensic Support Unit has recovered significant evidence already, and our Digital Forensics Team is analysing CCTV footage that has already provided valuable leads.

But we need your help. If you were in the Somerset Road area between 10 and 10.45pm last night, if you have any cell phone footage, any CCTV, or any information, no matter how small you think it is, please contact us. If you know a police officer, tell a police officer.

You can call the Serious Crime Unit at 247-1739 or the Confidential Crime Stoppers number at 800-8477. You can also use our Community Reporting Portal at portal.police.bm. I make this promise to the community. The Bruner Police Service is fully committed to bringing those involved to justice.

Every member of our staff is committed to solving this crime and preventing further violence. The public can expect to see search teams out as we chase down leads that are generated through the investigative process. You will also see us out on patrol exercising stop and search powers.

This may inconvenience you and I ask for your patience. Please work with us as we work to prevent future violence and bring offenders to justice.

Now I’m going to ask Mr. Jason Smith to share a few words.

Good morning. As the Commissioner has stated, at about 10.30pm the Bruner Police Service received several 911 calls that reported a shooting at the Legends by Somerset. Police officers attended to that location where they discovered that there were several persons with multiple gunshot wounds.

That particular scene, at the time of the shooting we know from our investigation, there were about 14 patrons that were inside of the sports bar. They were enjoying themselves and socialising for their night. As a result of our lines of enquiry so far, we can confirm that there are four suspects, four persons of interest.

We believe that those men were two up on a motorcycle that travelled to the Legends sports bar and they departed on the same motorcycles and they headed in what we believe is a westerly direction. This particular incident is disturbing to us because shots were fired, what we believe were indiscriminate at those inside of the club and unfortunately two persons have lost their lives. One is a female who is approximately 33 years of age, the second is a male who is 29 years of age, and there are three others who were shot and received injuries that are non-life threatening.

One is more critical and one young man was discharged from the hospital after being treated that night. The purpose of this press conference today is to seek the assistance of the public to help us, one, trace that bike that we talked about, so there was two persons on bikes, two up on each bike and somewhere in the region of about 10.30. From our lines of enquiry, we do know and there is some information that is coming to our attention that these particular motorcycles were circling the western area somewhere in the region of about 10 p.m. that night. So if you were out and about and you saw a bike that was driving around in the Somerset area, somewhat suspicious, something that raised your alarm bells, those are critical to our lines of enquiry.

You will also, in a few moments, there will be footage, video footage that will be released to the public, asking the public if they can recognise those persons that we are persons of interest to this enquiry who entered the Legends Bar and left. So when you see that footage, if you can identify those particular persons in that footage, if you can recognise them, those are critical to our lines of enquiry and helping to advance this investigation.

The senior officer in charge of this investigation is going to be Detective Chief Inspector Dorica Adams, sorry, Dorica Burns, and she can be reached at 717-0921.

Alternatively, there is Crime Stoppers at 800-8477, and there’s also a member of our police staff that if you know them and you feel comfortable to talk to them. The important message today is that we need the public support. We know from our previous experiences that when we have the public to support us, then we have success in these investigations.

There are five families that are suffering. There are two that have lost one, a daughter and a son. And on behalf of the Commissioner of Police and the Police Service, we extend our sincere condolences to those families of those persons who have lost their lives, and we ask you for your continued support in helping us to advance this investigation.

Thank you. And we’re happy to take questions.

Thank you for your remarks.

Q. And you know that there are four suspects to each child[?] in our motorcycle and that video footage is forthcoming, but is there any description you can provide now of the suspects or the vehicles?

A. What I would say to you is that at the moment our lines of enquiry tell us that one, they’re males, and there are four. The suspect descriptions, we will provide those details as further as we develop more information. At the moment, there are four males that are persons of interest.

And I think when you see the footage, hopefully that might be able to generate some more interest. And then that can assist us in our lines of enquiry. Okay.

Q. And do you have any information about the circumstances that led to the shooting?

A. So, again, those are part of the enquiry that we are asking for the public support. We do know that there were about 14 persons that were in the bar at the time. We do know that there are some suggestions, some information circulating in the Somerset community that these two bikes were seen previously.

And so any member of the public that has that information that can assist us, that’s very, very important to us. And once we get that information, then we can act upon that in real quick time. And as the Commissioner said, there are resources available to assist in those efforts.

And I think just particularly along those lines, I mean, these things don’t happen randomly, right? So there’s tensions that give rise to that. And I just want to reassure the community that this just isn’t a random incident and that there’s sources of tension that would have contributed to this. And we’re working from an investigative perspective to identify those sources of tension and bring a measure of calm.

So our patrols are not just random when you’re going to see us out from now on in the near future, but they’re going to be directed in areas where we may think reprisals may take place, et cetera, et cetera.

Q. Okay. So just to confirm, you understand this as a targeted attack and not a risk to the wider public?

A. This is very – there’s all the indications point that this is a targeted attack.

Q. Okay. And is there concern that this may spur on additional acts of violence?

A. I think that, you know, we definitely have seen a history of sort of retaliatory actions, so we need to be mindful of that. We’ve got a lot of officers out there that are going to be doing proactive patrols in areas where we think sources of tension are to reduce tensions and bring calm.

Q. Okay. And just lastly, touching on the increased patrols, can residents in Somerset expect a heightened police presence?

A. Residents in Somerset? I mean, today we’re going to have search teams out in that area. We’re going to be doing some community reassurance pieces in that area in an effort to gather some more information and intelligence and just generally reassure the public that we’re there and supporting them.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?

Q. Yeah.  … Solomon from the Royal Gazette. I just have one question. Do you have any information on the type of weapon that may have been used – weapon or weapons may have been used? And do you know or do you have any way of confirming whether they have been previously used in other incidents?

A. Okay.  So at this point in time, I’ll just say that there are handguns that are being used. We have recovered a number of shell casings at the scene that will be forensically identified with an effort to link them to previous – if they’ve been previously used and who may have been using them or what groups are associated with the use of firearms that are linked to other incidents. Thank you.

Any other questions, members of the community? All right. Thank you very much. And again, if you know a cop, tell a cop.

If you hear something, you know something, please be sure to bring that to our attention. Every little bit of information, no matter how small, is likely to be helpful to the investigation. And we really, really want to hear from you.

Thank you very much.