City Resident Shot in Both Legs

Chester Williams

On Independence Day, there was a shooting in the city that left twenty-two year old Otis Anthony Gladden hospitalized. After seven p.m., the Racecourse resident was shot to both his legs as he rode on bicycle on West Canal. While authorities have been unable to determine who made an attempt on the life of the Belize City youth, police say that interventions have been taken to ensure that there is no retaliation for his shooting.

Sr. Supt. Chester Williams, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“I will not say that it is an indication of any resurgence in terms of what used to take place in that area. But as I’ve always say as well, no matter what policing efforts we employ, we will never reduce crime totally. Crime will always be. What we are trying to do is to see how we can best contain the crime situation to keep it at a minimal level. Now in terms of the incident with Otis Gladden, it is a situation that the police are still investigating. As you rightly said, he was walking on the canal side and he was shot. He has not been able to say to us who shot him, but nonetheless what we have done—and again as part of our strategy–whenever there is a shooting, what we normally do is move into the area and get the intervention team, the mediation team, to talk with people to make sure that there is no retaliation. And I must say that since we begin this process that every shooting that they have had, there has been no retaliation because we have been very effective  in moving in immediately after a shooting and see how best we could talk to parties to neutralize any possibility of retaliation between the different groups.”

Duane Moody

“Sir but is Mister Gladden known to police as a troublemaker?”

Sr. Supt. Chester Williams

“Yeah he is not really known to police as a troublemaker and I don’t like to venture into the past of any person who has become a victim of a crime because I think that whatever past history that they have has nothing to do with the fact that they have been injured or to some extent violated by someone. So I would not want to venture into his past, but rather to see how best we can work with him to see how we can find those persons or that person who is responsible to commit the crime against him.”

Gladden remains hospitalized in a stable condition at the K.H.M.H.