By Jasmin Bonimy, Guardian Staff Reporter, jasmin@nasguard.com

Budget food store robbed

Police are investigating an armed robbery that occurred at Budget Food Store in the Coral Harbor area sometime around 9 a.m. Sunday.

According to police reports, the armed men entered the store demanding cash and forced the store's manager to open the safe. They took an undetermined amount of cash. Assistant Superintendent Walter Evans added that the three men escaped in a black Honda vehicle. The car was found with its engine running and abandoned just a short distance away.

Police are still actively seeking the three suspects.

Shooting suspect hospitalized

An early morning shoot-out with police and an armed man at the International Bazaar in Grand Bahama has resulted in the suspect being shot and an illegal weapon confiscated. Police reports indicate that around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, a security officer at the Bazaar contacted police to report that a man in the Club Rock area was firing shots from a handgun. When both uniform and plainclothes officers arrived on the scene, the suspect fired on the officers and then attempted to flee the area. Police then returned fire and the suspect was hit in the upper right arm and grazed in the back. The gunman, who has been identified as Michael Gibson of Shartsbury Lane, North Bahamia, was transported to the Rand Memorial Hospital where he was treated and is currently being detained in stable condition.

Firearm seized and suspect in custody

A Grand Bahama man is in police custody today after leading police from that island on a high-speed chase around 1:20 p.m. Sunday. Acting on a tip that the 29-year-old resident of Grenfell Avenue was carrying a loaded gun, officers from the Drug Enforcement Unit stopped the man's blue Buick near the roundabout at Settlers Way. As they attempted the stop, the young man threw a chrome .38 special revolver out of the drivers window then accelerated rapidly.

The gun was eventually recovered but not before the suspect led police on a chase that hit speeds nearing 100 mph along the Grand Bahama Highway.

The chase ended a short time later after the suspect lost control of his car, skidded into the pine forest and crashed into a tree. He was apprehended and taken into police custody. Formal charges are expected to be filed later this week.