What 45 Shell Casings and New Murder Charges May Mean for Three Officers in the Azario Major Case  

By Deandrea Hamilton | Editor

NASSAU, Bahamas (July 16, 2026) — The allegation is as shocking as it is consequential. Prosecutors now contend Azario Major was struck by additional gunfire after he was already dead.  That conclusion has prompted the Director of Public Prosecutions to upgrade the case against three police officers from manslaughter to murder ahead of a judge-only trial.

According to court filings and the DPP’s review of the forensic evidence, prosecutors allege that additional rounds entered Major’s body after death, a finding they say fundamentally changed their assessment of the case and justified the more serious charge of murder.

Investigators recovered 45 spent shell casings at the scene of the Boxing Day 2021 fatal shooting of Azario Major, a striking piece of forensic evidence that has remained central to the case from its earliest days.

Major, 31, was fatally shot by police outside Woody’s Bar on Fire Trail Road on December 26, 2021. While police initially maintained the shooting was justified, the circumstances surrounding the incident were heavily scrutinized during a Coroner’s Court inquest, where jurors ultimately returned a verdict of homicide by manslaughter.

The officers later challenged that finding, but the Supreme Court upheld the Coroner’s Court ruling, paving the way for criminal proceedings. They were subsequently arraigned on manslaughter charges and pleaded not guilty.

The DPP’s decision to elevate the charges to murder significantly raises the legal stakes. Unlike manslaughter, which does not necessarily require proof of an intent to kill, a murder conviction requires prosecutors to establish the legal elements of the more serious offence beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution’s case is now expected to focus heavily on forensic evidence, ballistic analysis and the sequence of gunfire during the fatal encounter.

The case is also notable because it will proceed without a jury. Barring further delays, the trial is expected to open on September 14 before Justice Guillimina Archer-Minns in a judge-alone trial, where a single judge—not a jury—will decide the fate of the three accused officers.

The proceedings will determine not only whether the three officers are guilty or innocent of murder, but whether prosecutors’ extraordinary allegation—that Azario Major was struck by additional gunfire after he was already dead—can be proven in court.