A targeted daylight assassination in Abaco, The Bahamas, has left an innocent local teen injured after he was struck by gunfire while simply stopping for a drink on his commute home from school, community leaders have confirmed. On Monday, 50-year-old Warren “Spy” Ellis — a man long linked to alleged drug trafficking and organized crime in the region — was killed in a public shooting that also caught the 14-year-old Patrick J Bethel High School eighth-grader in the line of fire.
Senior Pastor Beabrun Bresslin of Marsh Harbour’s New Haitian Mission Baptist Church, who has been supporting the boy’s family, has pushed back against widespread false social media speculation claiming the teen had connections to Ellis. Bresslin emphasized that the student had no ties whatsoever to the victim, and was not with Ellis at the time of the attack. The boy had simply left school, stopped at Parts City Auto Parts to purchase a cold drink, and was walking out of the store when gunmen opened fire on Ellis, who was walking just behind him.
Graphic footage from the scene captures the moment the teen was hit in his right leg, showing him dropping his school backpack and hopping back to the safety of the store as bullets flew. The student was quickly airlifted to the main hospital hub in New Providence for emergency care Monday night, and was discharged just one day later. Medical teams confirmed the bullet passed cleanly through the muscle tissue of his leg, avoiding any major damage to bones or critical vessels, leaving the boy with no life-altering injuries. While his physical condition is stable, the traumatic experience has left the teen deeply shaken, Bresslin said.
Despite the good medical outcome, the low-income family has faced significant financial and logistical barriers to continuing the teen’s care. The boy’s mother works as a stay-at-home housewife, and his father does not have consistent, stable employment. The pair accompanied their son to New Providence, but had no local family to stay with and could not afford hotel accommodation, forcing them to spend the entire first night at the hospital. Doctors recommended the teen remain in New Providence for several weeks of close follow-up checks, but the family could not cover the costs of an extended stay. With Bresslin stepping in to purchase their return tickets, the family travelled back to Abaco on Tuesday, and will now complete follow-up care at the local Marsh Harbour clinic. Bresslin’s church has pledged to provide the teen with professional counselling to help him process the traumatic event, and the pastor is currently appealing to the public for donations to cover the family’s unexpected medical and travel costs. He can be reached at 476-2874 for community members willing to contribute.
Octervil Baptiste, president of the Abaco Haitian Pastors Association, joined Bresslin in correcting misinformation circulating online about the teen’s involvement, noting that the random nature of the incident means it could have happened to any local resident. “He was passing by the store, and he stopped by the store to get something to drink. That’s something that could happen to anyone,” Baptiste said, adding that he hopes law enforcement will move quickly to identify and apprehend the attackers.
Police have confirmed that five gunmen coordinated the attack, with footage showing four suspects carrying high-powered military-grade weapons as they approached Ellis. The attackers escaped in a Cadillac, which was later found abandoned and set on fire to destroy evidence. Law enforcement sources told local media the killing is suspected to be a retaliatory attack connected to Ellis’ alleged past criminal activity.
Ellis had a decades-long public connection to criminal allegations, though formal cases against him were repeatedly discontinued over the years. In 2001, he was charged with murder and attempted murder following the killing of nurse Joan Lunn during an alleged hit on a patient at Princess Margaret Hospital. Those charges were dropped after Ellis agreed to testify against co-defendant Kendon Brown, who was ultimately sentenced to life in prison. In 2008, he was charged alongside an extradited drug dealer for the 2000 murder of Timothy Henfield, but the case was stayed the next year after the prosecution’s key witness recanted their testimony. Most recently, in 2018, Ellis and his wife were arrested at Lynden Pindling International Airport while en route to Canada after police found more than $13,000 in cash in their luggage; those charges were also ultimately dropped.
According to Tribune records, Monday’s killing marks the second murder recorded in Abaco this year, and the 52nd homicide across The Bahamas in 2024 as of the date of the shooting. As of Tuesday, it remained unclear whether any suspects had been taken into custody.