Stann Creek man charged with shooting at cop

Tonight a man from the Stann Creek District is charged with the attempted murder of a police officer. According to Independence Police, around two-thirty on Tuesday afternoon, Police Constable Tyler Castillo was heading home and had just gotten off a bus at the junction of the Southern Highway and the Georgetown road. Two other men got off the bus with him, one identified as forty-two year old Thomas Valerio, a man whom P.C. Castillo had arrested years ago for drug related offences. But for the moment, Valerio paid no attention to Castillo. He just got on a bicycle he had parked at the bus stop and rode off toward the village, while Castillo and the other man started their walk in the same direction. But halfway there, a blue Toyota came from Georgetown with Valerio in the driver’s seat, one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a small handgun. With a mouth full of obscenities and threats of death, Valerio took aim and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. The cop seized the moment and took bush just in time because the second shot fired. It missed, but the police officer kept running. He made it all the way to the police station and within the hour his colleagues had detained the shooter. Tonight, Thomas Valerio is charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault.