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When 2022 rolled in, we anticipated a year of hope after two years of lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some news stories in 2022 turned out to be tear-jerkers.

This is a look back at the saddest and most shocking stories of the year.

1. Murder-Suicide of Fenron Ferguson and Heavenly Turveus (January)

Fenron Ferguson, a 24-year-old with his own business, shot himself in the head after killing his girlfriend, 20-year-old Heavenly Turveus. The couple who had a one-month-old baby boy was involved in a tumultuous relationship. Ferguson snuck into the home and committed the crime. The couple was found in her bedroom at her mother’s home. The baby was unharmed.

2. Woman Killed On Her Way to Prayer Meeting (January)

Church-goer Claudette Capron was murdered as she entered the church doors for a prayer meeting. She and her sister were in the parking lot of their church when a 17-year-old gunman chased another man, shooting Capron instead, who had turned around to retrieve a face mask from her vehicle.

3. Three Americans Discovered Dead in Exuma Resort (May)

Three Americans on vacation in Great Exuma were found dead in a resort where officials believed they suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning. Vincent Chiarella, 68, was found first in one villa slumped over in a bathroom and a couple, Michael Phillips, 68, and his wife, Robbie Phillips, 65, celebrating their wedding anniversary in a second villa, showed signs of convulsions. A surviving woman was hospitalized with swollen legs and arms. The tourists all died over the course of one evening.

4. Student Killed in a Park (June)

13-year-old Quinton McKenzie of LW Young School was found in a park in the Kemp Road area with bullets to the neck and jaw. Money was also found in his hand. It is believed the video gamer was playing a gambling game when shots were fired. He, with others, ran but he collapsed and died on the scene.

5. Young Woman Killed in Plane Crash (June)

Aleitheia Sweeting was killed in a plane crash after she and seven others returned from Regatta in Long Island. The young mother wished to return to Nassau early but met her fate after the plane took off. Survivors suffered a broken rib, and a bruised back after the twin-engine aircraft went down in bushes two miles from Deadman’s Cay Airport, as they waited to be found before help arrived. Sweeting was described as a sweet and joyous person.

6. Preschooler Killed by Stray Bullet (July)

4-year-old Kenton Seymour was killed while sitting on the lap of his mother when a bullet pierced the windshield of his father’s vehicle as the family took a late-night drive to get food. The gunman was chasing another man when a stray bullet hit the preschooler.

7. Migrants Overturned and Drowned on Human Smuggling Voyage (July)

17 Haitian migrants including an infant, capsized in a human smuggling operation. The group was trying to make their way to Florida for a better way of life, when their vessel capsized in rough seas and they drowned. Twenty-five people who also attempted to make the dangerous voyage were rescued and others were reported missing.

8. College Grad with Bright Future Murdered After Return from USA (August)

Omar Davis Jr, 21, had just returned from college after graduation when his body was found wrapped in a garbage bag and beaten with wounds to the head, face, and chest area. The grisly discovery in the back trunk of a vehicle came after he went missing the night before the incident when suspects put his body in a parked vehicle behind a grocery store. Davis was one of many Bahamians who received scholarships to attend college in the United States.

9. Bull Shark Kills Tourist on Private Excursion (September)

Cruise ship visitor from Pennysylvania, Caroline DiPlacido took a snorkeling excursion with her children when a bull shark off Rose Island, attacked and bit her. The one-day stop in Nassau to enjoy the country’s marine environment turned deadly in a matter of hours. The private tour operators pulled her from the waters and gave medical assistance, but she died not long after. The 58-year-old was an employee of Gannon University.

Following the killing of a four-year-old on Tuesday night, some members of the public are calling for the ultimate punishment for convicts accused of killing children.

Reports are that Kenton Seymour Jr was in a vehicle with his parents on West and Fleming Streets around 10 pm, when gunmen reportedly chased and fired shots at a man, instead shooting into the windshield of a car, killing the young boy who was sitting on his mother’s lap.

The child was rushed to the hospital but died a short time later.

Renewed calls for capital punishment were echoed on social media.

“Our biggest problem is the Privy Council. They never deem anything ‘the worst of the worst’. Our own judicial system here has been failing us,” Taylor Mara said.

Brittonee Newry asked, “How many kids have to die for the nation to get serious? Does the violence have to hit the home of some elites for the ax to come down on the heads of these murderers?”

Alexandra Major lamented, “This is unacceptable. Something must be done about all these killings and guns.”

Senator Maxine Seymour joined in the chorus, responding to a post by Helen Johnson who asked, “How many more innocent children’s lives will be taken by these ruthless thugs? Members of Parliament and Senators, please make changes to the law.”

Seymour said, ” You’re quite right. Anyone who harms a child in any way, not just death, deserves the ultimate punishment.”

Though the death penalty remains on law books, it has not been carried out since January 2000.

The Bahamas’ highest court based in London, The Privy Council, ruled in 2011 that the death penalty law should only apply to murders deemed the “worst of the worst”–a person who kills a police or defence force officer, a member of the Departments of Customs or Immigration, judiciary or prison services would be eligible for a death sentence; a person convicted of murdering someone during a rape, robbery, kidnapping or during an act of terrorism.

Kenton’s murder was one of three shooting incidents yesterday.

Police said they have seen an uptick in homicide cases. 82 murders have been recorded for the year.

Police said they have the intended target in custody and are searching for the suspects in this latest homicide.