Police Blunder

This blunder by police has the community reeling and enraged.

Meanwhile the family members of 5-month-old Lynderia Saunders plan to take legal action against the Royal Bahamas Police Force and some factions of the media after it was initially reported that the infant suffered internal injuries as a result of sexual molestation.

This past Saturday, the crime report emailed to the media by police press liaison officer ASP Walter Evans read as follows: "Sometime around 10:00p.m., a five month female infant was taken to hospital for injuries and passed away about two (2) hours later. Police have in custody the parents of the baby who are being questioned in connection with this matter. It is believed that the infant may have been molested. An intensive investigation has been launched in relation to how the infant met her demise."

While the report from the police sparked a public outrage, speculation about the child’s death was put to rest Wednesday after her mother, Inderia Minns along with other family members held a press conference at the law chambers of attorney Paul Moss to express their "disgust" with how the matter was dealt with.

"Today is bittersweet, sweet because both the pathologist and the police confirm that there was no molestation and this sweet child died as a result of respiratory failure," said Mr. Moss who is representing the family. "This totally exonerates this family who has been suffering during this time of bereavement.

"It is bitter because notwithstanding the loss of this beautiful child and the hurt felt by the family, they have been subjected to the vilest language directed at them, all over the press and airwaves."

Attorney Moss continued that "prominent persons in society" did not concentrate on the welfare of the family but instead on the "alleged perpetrator", with only the prime minister offering condolences publicly.

"Some spoke about a 7000 person march on Parliament yet no focus on the family and loss of life was highlighted," he said. "This family is hurting and needs our prayers. We think it is fitting to advise that this child was ill and was discharged from hospital last Tuesday.

"When she took a turn for the worse she was returned to the hospital where she died last Friday. The child was being treated with antibiotics that resulted in diarrhea which lead to chaffing and a rash."

The attorney said that the presumption of sexual molestation must be laid "directly at the feet of Inspector Walter Evans, the police press liaison officer".

"It was his commentary stating that police may have had reason to believe that the child was molested," Mr. Moss exclaimed. "What he did was tantamount to falsely crying fire in a theatre. His job is to simply state the facts, not to speculate as to the cause of death.

"His speculation or his affirmation that the child was molested and died as a result of it sparked the nation-wide outcry which almost resulted in the actual loss of life of an innocent person.

"This is dangerous and I suggest that the police look into this matter and put a check on this dangerous commentary."

Debra Farrington, the infant’s grandmother told reporters that at no time did any of her family members meet with Inspector Evans and did not understand why he made certain statements about the baby’s death on ZNS’ radio newscast on Saturday at 1p.m.

The infant’s great-grandmother, Elena Minns added that her entire family is "disgusted" by the way, both the media and police, handled the entire matter.

"I am very outraged, I am hurt and I am very displeased of how our media system works and how nobody in our country is innocent until proven guilty," she said. "I am disgusted because we know that our baby was not molested and we know that we have no family member of ours that molests children.

"And what hurts so much is that we did not have time to grieve because the media did not allow us to mourn our baby’s death. They just jumped all over us and walked on us and said the most horrible things."

Ms. Minns said she is hurt and in disbelief to see how cruel Bahamians can be.

"For the mere fact that the police gave a report without the pathologist report being released just seems upside down because you are supposed to do a proper investigation before you would put things out to the media."

The great-grandmother added that she is a woman of God who stands for righteousness and the only thing that the family can do is pull themselves together to grieve the loss of their loved one.

Meanwhile, before the exact cause of death was revealed yesterday by the family of the infant, the Bahamas Christian Council issued a statement which outlined that they are calling for a National Day of Fasting, Prayer and Repentance in an effort to bring the country back from "this moral pit of decay and ruin."

As the Council then concluded, "We invite the Government, the Opposition, the Police, the Defence Force, heads of churches, pastors, members of parliament, School Principals, students, other stakeholders, Bahamians everywhere, to come and join us at Rawson Square on Tuesday June 23, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. as we petition God to have mercy on us as a Nation," the statement read.