Abusive police officer goes on rampage in San Pedro

A school teacher at La Isla Bonita claims she has been the victim of abuse for some time by her ex common-law. And in the latest incident this week, the situation turned uglier when two missionaries who went to her aid, were also assaulted by the same man, a police officer. Jose Sanchez went to the island today and found the San Pedro police, mum.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting
The physical abuse of a teacher of Holy Cross Anglican Primary School on San Pedro is causing a firestorm in the ranks of the Police Department. The teacher has identified the abuser as an officer assigned to the San Pedro Police. The woman, who did not want to appear on camera, says the most recent violent incident against her occurred on Sunday night.

Voice of Abuse Victim
“He came to the house about two o’clock in the morning. He knocked on the and I didn’t open it but the door doesn’t lock good because of so many times that he’s knocked it in. He came inside, he was yelling and cursing and threatening me and he ended up hitting me and I fell on the bed. After that, I was getting up to go to the bathroom to see if I had any bruise or anything on my face and he pushed me back on the bed and he threatened to kill me in front of my son. On Monday morning I didn’t come to school. I just couldn’t take it no more. I was getting ready to leave so I was heading to the bank to get ready to leave and on my way I met him and he had my phone and just like two minutes after I met him Mrs. Williams called me and she asked me where I was because Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were coming to get me.”

The founders of the school, Vernon and Francis Wilson, went looking for the teacher in a taxi and all hell broke loose when they stopped in front of Fido’s Courtyard.

Mrs. Francis Wilson, Local Manager, Holy Cross
“She immediately ran over to us with her son, jumped into the back seat of the car. She was visibly shaking. I got back in the van and got the door, the side sliding door closed. He then ran around to the drivers side and hurled himself in through the window that he managed to pull open. And when he came in, he basically flattened me and I went up against the side of the van door.”

Mr. Vernon Wilson, Director, Holy Cross
“He hit my wife, he shoved her across the van into the side of the van and bruised her up quite badly. Another gentleman, Bob Hamilton from Coral Beach was standing there and he jumped into the van to put himself between the officer and my wife who he was going after. I had, at that moment, grabbed his shirt and jerked him around. We ripped his shirt and he yelled at me “you ripped my shirt, you ripped my shirt” and held on to his belt with my left hand on his belt and he hit me across the face with his left hand, grabbed my left thumb and tried to break it, which is still in a lot of pain. Lucky he didn’t break it, it’s just sprained. I jerked my hand back. By then Bob was inside the van and he’s two hundred and twenty pounds and blocked his access to the back of the van and we tried to restrain him.”

They let officer Martinez go and all of them went to the San Pedro Police Station. The Wilsons thought everything was okay, until they found out they were the ones in trouble.

Mrs. Francis Wilson
“I was told by the police officer there that I was under arrest and my husband was under arrest and that we could not leave the Police Department and he suggested that it call someone to take all of my personal items. I was absolutely speechless.”

Mr. Vernon Wilson
“Officer Clark and officer Martinez, took me into a back room and tried to get me to drop the charges. They said that they would drop his charged against me and my wife if I dropped the charges against him because I had charged him with Wounding and he would lose his job if he got convicted of it and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.”

Jose Sanchez
“Do you think that was normal police procedure?”

Mr. Vernon Wilson
“I think it’s normal out here and they threatened me. Officer Clark said ‘I don’t think you want to make enemies Mr. Wilson’.”

Mrs. Francis Wilson
“From the chief on down; everybody was acting as if it was her all fault. If she really had been having a problem with this guy, she should have dealt with it. And she was really afraid of him, she wouldn’t have dropped the charges a year ago and I said to police Arnold, can’t you put yourself in this woman’s shoes? She’s been beaten up several times, she’s scared to death and the man that is doing this is a policeman. Chief Arnold totally dismissed me. He said no one in my department will lay a hand on a woman. They know that if they lay a hand on a woman they’re not gonna be working here. I said but he is laying a hand on her and nothing is being done.”

Voice of Abuse Victim
“I gave a statement, I indicated I wanted to press charges. Like two minutes later I heard another policeman say that I didn’t want to press charged. They were trying to make it go away. It’s the same thing I’ve been going through for so long.”

Jose Sanchez
“Because they are saying that you don’t want anything done. Do you want to press charges against him?”

Voice of Abuse Victim
“Yes, I do because if it doesn’t happen to me again, it’s going to happen to somebody and it’s not right.”

Martinez is the same policeman who fired several shots at a suspect he was chasing inside Queen’s Square Anglican Primary School on October twenty-first, 2004.

Nelma Mortis, Principal Squeen’s Square Anglican Primary School (October 21, 2004)
“When I first heard the first set of shots which was like maybe three rounds, I asked what happen and then I saw the social worker throwing herself on the ground and a present of mind told me it’s gunshot. So I stooped down behind my desk and I grabbed the phone. When I grabbed the phone I called 911 to say that we were having some confusion in our schoolyard. The teachers they locked up their windows. The children were locked up. Some of them were under the desk screaming and it’s from all levels. It wasn’t only from the Infant division; it was Middle and Upper too. They were confused, we were in a state of confusion.”

This incident is a major test of police department’s Zero Tolerance policy.

Mrs. Francis Wilson
“If indeed he does have relatives in high positions in the police department because if that is the case and he is being protected it is wrong, wrong, wrong!”

Voice of Abuse Victim
“Somebody needs to get up and say that we’re going to stop this and they need to start somewhere and they need to start with themselves before they go to anybody else.”

Jose Sanchez
“And by speaking out, you’re making the first brave and bold step.”

Voice of Abuse Victim
“And I hope it means something because this is very sad.”

Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.