A Decade After a Police Bullet Severed His Spinal Cord, Thorne Clarke…
A Decade After a Police Bullet Severed His Spinal Cord, Thorne Clarke Has a Judgment. The Royal Bahamas Police Force Still Has a Record.
Thorne Clarke was 22 years old when a Royal Bahamas Police Force officer shot him in the back on the night of February 13, 2016, near Wilson Tract in Nassau.
The bullet entered through the back of his mother’s van and severed his spinal cord at the T7 and T8 level.
Clarke was left permanently paralysed from the chest down.
He lost the use of his legs, normal bladder and bowel control, and sexual function.
He is now 32 years old.
On September 21, 2026, Assistant Registrar Jonathan Deal assessed his damages at $941,893.91.
That is one of the largest awards of its kind in Bahamian history.
Clarke had already received an $80,000 interim payment for emergency surgery after developing a life-threatening pressure ulcer.
That left $861,893.91 outstanding, along with interest and legal costs.
The defendants were the state, the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General.
They never filed a defence.
A judgment in default was entered in September 2019.
Seven years later, the court still had to determine how much money should be paid for what happened to a young man whose life was permanently changed.
What the court found and what it could not find
The shooting itself was never fully tried in court.
Police said they were looking for a suspicious-looking man.
According to the police account, officers surrounded the van and ordered Clarke to get out.
Police said Clarke then tried to drive away and attempted to knock down an officer.
The officer fired because he feared for his life.
Clarke gave a very different account to The Tribune three months after the shooting.
His account was never tested in court because the government failed to defend the case.
Clarke said he stopped when police approached him and asked why he was being stopped.
He said he received no answer.
He then began to pull away.
According to Clarke, he had travelled less than ten feet when he was shot.
He also said officers dragged him from the wreck, threw him on the ground and handcuffed him even though he was already paralysed.
He said officers kicked him and that one officer put a foot on his face.
Clarke also alleged that one officer told him he might as well make peace with the Lord and die.
He said another officer removed his tam and told him they had the wrong man.
An ambulance delay followed.
Clarke was also kept under police guard at Princess Margaret Hospital for days.
His mother said nurses neglected him because they believed he was a criminal.
He later developed deep pressure sores.
Doctors in the United States eventually told the family that faster medical treatment might have given him a chance of walking again.
The bullet remained lodged in his spine.
How the court calculated the $941,893.91
Assistant Registrar Deal awarded Clarke $425,000 for pain, suffering and the loss of enjoyment of life.
He was awarded $135,000 for his loss of earning capacity.
Another $126,546 was awarded for future medical expenses, including the cost of diapers and pads over the course of his life.
He received $96,264.50 for past lost earnings.
His mother was awarded $60,000 for the nursing care she provided after she had to close her daycare business.
The court also awarded $15,000 in aggravated damages and $50,000 in exemplary damages.
The exemplary damages were the court’s formal expression of disapproval of the conduct involved.
Clarke had sought more than $2 million.
The defendants had offered about $539,000.
The final judgment was $941,893.91.
But money cannot restore Clarke’s spinal cord.
Before the shooting, Clarke was an accounting student with a scholarship.
He also had a part-time job and played basketball.
After the shooting, he spent years unemployed.
He now works, with difficulty, at the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities.
He has also suffered from PTSD and major depression.
He cannot drive.
His social life has been greatly reduced.
That is the human cost left behind by a traffic stop that never resulted in a named police officer being publicly held responsible through a trial in this case.
This is not an isolated payout
Bahamian courts have been awarding damages in cases involving police misconduct for years.
Shorn, also known as Shawn Scott, was left paraplegic after a police beating in Freeport in 1998.
Liability was established, and the damages eventually went through the Court of Appeal and to the Privy Council.
Other cases have also resulted in awards involving allegations or findings of assault, unlawful arrest, people having their teeth knocked out, guns being held to people’s heads and police officers attacking members of the public.
There have even been cases involving officers attacking other officers.
The issue, therefore, is not simply one night in 2016.
It is a long public record of civil cases and financial awards connected to police conduct.
The force the United States has already described in an indictment
There is another part of the Royal Bahamas Police Force record that cannot simply be ignored.
In November 2024, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment charging what prosecutors described as a massive cocaine importation conspiracy involving corrupt Bahamian government officials, including high-ranking members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Among those named were RBPF Chief Superintendent Elvis Nathaniel Curtis and RBPF Sergeant Prince Albert Symonette.
Curtis was responsible for aviation and airport operations, including Lynden Pindling International Airport.
Royal Bahamas Defence Force Chief Petty Officer Darrin Alexander Roker was also charged.
U.S. prosecutors alleged that from at least May 2021, traffickers moved tons of cocaine through The Bahamas toward the United States with the assistance of government officials.
Prosecutors alleged that some officials controlled airports, helped speed up the movement of drugs and provided other assistance.
In Roker’s case, prosecutors alleged that sensitive information about U.S. Coast Guard and OPBAT movements was passed to traffickers.
The charging documents referred to bribes ranging from $10,000 cash payments to an alleged $2 million payment connected to a high-ranking Bahamian politician who was not named in the public indictment.
Curtis and Symonette were each alleged to have received $10,000 in October 2023 as a down payment for assistance with a 600-kilogram cocaine shipment through Nassau airport.
Roker later pleaded guilty.
Curtis appeared in a New York courtroom in shackles.
Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander resigned in the aftermath.
Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis described the problem as a culture that did not happen overnight.
U.S. prosecutors said drug-related corruption had infected various Bahamian institutions.
They also alleged that corrupt RBPF and government officials supported the drug trade at every turn.
The indictment further alleged that Bahamian police denied the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration access to seized cocaine and provided false information to American authorities.
These are not words written by a newspaper columnist.
They are allegations contained in a federal charging document filed by the United States Department of Justice.
The people charged in that case are entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until proven guilty in court.
A.G. goes after the U.S. but Ambassador claps back
Now the story has taken another turn.
Attorney General Senator Hon. Wayne Munroe has accused American Drug Enforcement Administration agents of breaking Bahamian drug laws when they carried out undercover operations in The Bahamas.
Those operations were connected to the alleged years-long cocaine trafficking conspiracy that eventually led to the indictment and arrests of Bahamian law enforcement officers and a convicted drug trafficker.
Munroe also responded to suggestions that the actions of the United States show that America does not trust the Davis administration.
He told reporters that if America does not believe The Bahamas is a trustworthy partner, then America should say so.
But the response from U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas Herschel Walker was direct.
Walker said the United States remains ready to work with The Bahamas to stop the flow of drugs.
He said the Bahamian people know he is in The Bahamas to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.
Walker said he stands ready to work together with the Bahamian government.
But he also made America’s position clear.
The United States, he said, cannot accept the flow of drugs to its shores any longer.
Walker also said that drug trafficking is bad for the sovereignty of both The Bahamas and the United States.
The disagreement did not begin with the Attorney General.
Last week, Bahamian Ambassador to the United States Wendall Jones accused what he called rogue DEA agents of operating in The Bahamas and destabilizing the government.
So now there are two very different positions on the same situation.
The Bahamian government is raising questions about whether U.S. agents respected Bahamian law and sovereignty.
The United States is saying that it is ready to work with The Bahamas but will not accept the continued flow of illegal drugs to American shores.
And all of this is happening against the background of a U.S. federal indictment that accused senior Bahamian law enforcement officials of helping facilitate a major cocaine trafficking operation.
That raises a difficult question for the public.
Where should the line be drawn between protecting Bahamian sovereignty and cooperating with the United States to stop drugs from moving through The Bahamas?
What the $942,000 actually buys
The nearly $942,000 judgment does not restore Clarke’s spinal cord.
It does not identify the police officer who fired the bullet.
It does not put the night of February 13, 2016, on trial.
It does not answer why a default judgment was allowed to remain unresolved for years while a young man suffered serious medical problems and developed infected stage-four pressure ulcers while waiting for money to pay for surgery.
What the judgment does is add another major payment to the public record involving police conduct.
That record already includes civil awards involving police violence.
It also exists alongside a U.S. federal indictment that accused senior members of the same force and other Bahamian officials of helping facilitate a large cocaine trafficking operation.
Now the country is also watching a public disagreement between Bahamian officials and the United States over how American drug agents operate inside The Bahamas.
The question for the Bahamian public is not simply how much money Clarke was awarded.
The bigger question is what these cases tell us about the institutions that are supposed to protect the people.
Are these isolated cases involving individual officers and officials?
Or are they signs of deeper problems that have been allowed to continue for years?
At the same time, there is another question.
Can The Bahamas protect its sovereignty while maintaining the cooperation it needs with the United States to fight international drug trafficking?
The public can look at the court judgments, the documented cases, the federal indictment and the statements from both governments and decide what those facts mean for the country.
Sources
The Tribune, “Man paralysed by police awarded $942k,” September 29, 2026.
The Tribune, “Man paralysed after being shot by police,” May 11, 2016.
The Tribune, interim payment coverage, August 21, 2026.
United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, press release on the indictment, November 27, 2024.
Associated Press, “Bahamian police chief resigns in the wake of a massive US drug trafficking case,” December 5, 2024.
The Nassau Guardian, “They breached our laws,” September 2026.
The Tribune, reporting on Curtis’s New York appearance, Roker’s guilty plea and the Scott paraplegia damages case.
Page Reply:
Keep in mind that there are still a handful of decent Christian police officers. But there is absolutely no whistleblowers act in the police force that can self clean up all of the corruption inside of this organization because it’s generational. And just the way it is most likely to stay.
God is not pleased…
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