Policeman stabbed by teen he had once arrested

It was to be a weekend of reflection as Belizeans throughout the country prayed for peace, but you’d never know it by the violence that dominated Saturday and Sunday. We begin tonight with the story of a police officer who is recuperating at the K.H.M.H. after being stabbed in the stomach by a teenager he arrested a year ago. According to P.C. Nelson Nunez, around 7:30 Saturday night, he had just gone off duty and was standing at the corner of Cemetery Road and Central American Boulevard to catch a bus. P.C. Nunez, still dressed in his uniform, says while waiting a young man he has now identified as seventeen year old Antonio Banner, pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the stomach. The police officer was rushed to the K.H.M.H. where he remains admitted to ward in a stable condition. According to police press officer G. Michael Reid, Banner had been arrested by P.C. Nunez for handling stolen property a year ago. The teen was later apprehended in Hattieville and is now in police custody pending charges of attempted murder.

Saturday night also proved eventful for another police officer, this time in the Cayo District. According to reports, around 10:00 p.m., P.C. Gail Gibson was part of a mobile patrol in San Ignacio when the officer spotted a man acting suspiciously on George Price Avenue. The man, now identified as forty-one year old Alfredo August, was searched and the cops found a bag of weed on him. P.C. Gibson says when she told August he was under arrest, he put up a fight and in the scuffle, grabbed the barrel of her service revolver. The gun went off and August was hit in his hand. He was taken to the San Ignacio Hospital where he was treated and released into police custody. He has now been charged with drug trafficking.