Caye Caulker cops accused of brutality

They call it La Isla Carinosa… but the Caye Caulker police were anything but loving this weekend to one island resident who alleges that cops beat him so mercilessly that he came close to death.

Luis Alcoser, Alleges Police Brutality
?I bawl and bawl, and the more I bawl they work (beat) me because they seh I the play the fool. But dah noh the fool I mi di play, they just want hurt me you know.?

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
According to twenty-two year old Luis Alcoser, at approximately seven-thirty on Saturday night he was on the beach in Caye Caulker Village when a plain clothes police officer approached him and started to beat him up.

Luis Alcoser
?The police officer weh beat me, he reach right deh so and he not even tell me weh di happen or what I di get arrest for. He just grab me by my shirt and hib (throw) me into the Trooper. And like how I deh pan the ground, I try get up on he, like hold onto his pants, and he seh to me, ?No hold on pan me!? So any time he tell me that he receive me with a knee inna my mouth, drop out one ah my teeth. And the same when I di look for my teeth, well he just start to work me up more on the ground. After that I get knockout and when I wake up I deh inna the cell and right inna the cell they just finish do what they mi have to do.?

Tonight doctors say the twenty-two year old is lucky to be alive. According to medical personnel, Alcoser suffered abdominal trauma, which ruptured his spleen causing severe intra-abdominal bleeding. In the end, his doctor had to remove Alcoser?s spleen. From his hospital bed, Alcoser maintains his innocence.

Luis Alcoser
?That dah what I would like to know, why they mi have to do me this, because I noh do them nothing. I noh do them nothing, nothing at all. And I know I nevah, I neva wanted fu nothing pan the island fi mek I di hide from them. I just di go dah this lee pageant thing weh they di got and they just approach me like that. But the officers, they have to look into them because they like drink pan the island, they live the life of the rich and famous. Because when they could do it, they do it and nobody look after that.?

Janelle Chanona
?Were you drinking, were you under the influence??

Luis Alcoser
?I was drinking, but I wasn?t drunk, so that?s why I know what I was doing. And I did not–probably I insulted them afterwards, but not at the moment when they came at me. So I would really like to see justice because if I had passed away on Sunday, this [the interview] wasn?t going to happen, this nevah mi wah happen if I mi pass away.?

Tonight two officers have been criminally charged and one internally disciplined in connection with the incident in Caye Caulker. They are P.C. Ricardo Cowo, P.C. Elvis Tzul, and P.C. John Mas. At the time of the beating, Cowo, dressed in civilian clothing was the only one on duty. According to Police press officer, G. Michael Reid, Cowo has been charged with dangerous harm, Mas will be charged with harm, and Tzul will be disciplined internally by the department.

G. Michael Reid, Police Press Officer
?We believe the police officers did use excessive force, that the force was not justifiable and Acting Commissioner of Police, Maureen Leslie, has made it quite clear that this will not be condoned nor tolerated.?

Janelle Chanona
?Based on the injuries sustained by this young man, has the investigation revealed what was used to beat him??

G. Michael Reid
?Going from what this individual has said, the police officers were using their feet and in fact kicking him. The police officers are saying no, they were just trying to restrain him. There are two different sides of the story here. Whatever did occur, it seems the force used was excessive.?

?The investigation will be expedient, transparent, and fair. And every attempt will be made to determine exactly what occurred and if there is any fault found on the part of even the police officers, they will have to face justice.?

Luisa Alcoser, Mother of the Victim
?When I see my son I seh, why the police have to do that to my son. Only that I seh, why they have to do that.?

?I want, fu my son he seh he will press charges to them because he seh he nevah do nothing to them fu them do him that.?

The two officers charged, P.C.’s Cowo and Mas, have been interdicted until the case is resolved.