8 Murders in Wild Weekend; Cop Stabbed to Death at Police Headquarters in Belize City

Marvin Locke

A series of murders over the weekend has shocked a nation long since used to hearing about wanton, senseless violence. The past weekend was grim with bloodshed in the Belize, Cayo and Stann Creek Districts. Eight persons were murdered, setting a new record for the number of persons killed in less than two days. Of the eight murders, five occurred in the City and narrowing it even further three on Kelly Street where the bloodshed was the heaviest.  We’ll have all the crime, but we go to the brazen stabbing murder of a police officer that occurred on Sunday afternoon at his place of work. The officer was visited by the accused at the Racoon Street police station. Within minutes, he was dead. Late this evening, Marcial Toledo, a Honduran national, was arraigned for the murder of Police constable Marvin Locke which police suspect was a crime of passion. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

A most audacious act of violence against one of its own has the Belize Police Department reeling and the nation in an utter state of shock, following the mid-afternoon murder of an officer in the line of duty.  Police Constable Marvin Locke had just completed a shift here at the Raccoon Street Precinct when he was visited by an individual with whom he had a brief conversation in the lobby of the station.  The casual talk continued outside of the building where Locke and his colleagues were oblivious to what was about to take place near the entrance.

Chester Williams

ACP Chester Williams, O.C., Eastern Division South

“Yesterday afternoon around three p.m. [or] thereabout, one Marcial Toledo visited the police station asking for PC Locke, as is customary; people come to the station and ask for the police.  PC Locke, who was out, came in.  Him and the individual had a little talk inside the station and they eventually walked outside and upon getting outside the individual took out a knife and attacked the police.”

Locke was stabbed multiple times to the chest and abdomen by an assailant who caught him flatfooted.  By the time other officers realized what was happening, their colleague was already mortally wounded.

Marcial Toledo

ACP Chester Williams

“Locke was transported to the K.H.M.H. and he succumbed while undergoing treatment.  Mr. Toledo is in police custody and will be charged today for the murder of PC Locke.”

While his killer remains in detention, many, including his family, are baffled as to why he would be attacked and dispatched in such cruel manner.  If losing everything in Friday’s fire in Majestic Alley wasn’t tragic enough, Locke’s mother and siblings are mourning the loss of their loved one.

Sylvia Foreman, Sister of Deceased

“I still leff shocked.  I get the message about five o’clock on Sunday when he died.  I went to the Raccoon [Street] Police Station this morning and spoke with Mr. Chester Williams and we are arranging now the funeral for him but I’m still waiting to hear really what happened.  Weh caused the death of my brother Marvin.”

To answer that question, we turned to Officer Commanding Eastern Division South, Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams.

ACP Chester Williams

“When the individual came, Locke was not at station.  Locke was out on patrol but he was just about to report off duty.  So the officer at the front desk informed the individual that Locke was not in.  The individual sat there for like fifteen minutes and waited for Locke to come in.  When PC Locke came in the person spoke with Locke.  They spoke, like I said, casually for a little while, about five minutes or thereabout and then they went outside.  As they went outside it was a totally different situation, so the officers downstairs were not expecting that type of behavior from the individual.”

According to police, the fatal attack was a crime of passion, suggesting that a woman may have been at the center of the bitter ordeal.  Locke’s sister, Sylvia Foreman, admits to not knowing much about his relationship.

Sylvia Foreman

Sylvia Foreman

“Weh happen I can’t tell yoh because di person weh ih mi di date, I can’t tell yoh who was that person because whenever I meet my bredda or whenever I go to ih house ih always deh by ihself.  Ih neva live with nobody.”

Beyond the motive of the murder, the brazenness with which it was executed raises serious concerns about the safety of officers, particularly since the Raccoon Street Police Station is an unarmed office.

ACP Chester Williams

“I will not go to the extent of saying that the police are not safe inside the station.  Yes, an incident did occur and you would know that people do visit the station and ask for police officers everyday and we are not in the tendency of searching people who come to look for police.  When you come to see an officer the officer will come to meet you and you engage in conversation with the officer, you talk or whatever.  From the looks of it everything appeared casual between PC Locke and the individual when they spoke inside the station.  When they got outside that’s when the man manifested a totally different behavior.  So we have heard comments about arming the police at the front desk, not even that would have prevented the incident but probably the accused would have been dead.  The officers who were out there at the time, they acted swiftly in getting him off the police and detained him.”

Marcial Toledo appeared in magistrate’s court this afternoon where he was arraigned on a single charge of murder.  Locke’s family, on the other hand, are left to mourn two losses; their property to the weekend fire and their loved one to a senseless act of butchery.

Sylvia Foreman

“That’s a big loss, very, very big loss we have.  My mom and my sister, a very big loss.  Now we have the death, mek it a bigger loss for us but as I said, we have to face it.  It’s reality.  It’s one day at a time we have to take it now.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.