2 Charged for Kum Hua Robbery

Two men have been charged for the robbery at Kum Hua Store in Belize City. Kerun Miguel and Jamar Neal appeared in court before Magistrate Khadeen Palmer today where they were read a single charge of robbery with a firearm.  Both men pleaded not guilty to the charge.  Magistrate Palmer asked the duo to provide special reasons why they should be granted bail because offences with firearms mean immediate jail time.  Construction worker Kerun Miguel told the court that he was innocent and that he had already surrendered to the police and was already in handcuffs when an officer he knew shot him in the leg. He claimed that it wasn’t until twenty minutes after he was shot that police called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. He also said that he fears for his life and wouldn’t be able to provide for his five-month-old child if he is put behind bars. Jamar Neal also told the court that when he was picked up, an officer repeatedly struck him with a baton while he was in a police vehicle. He says that the beating fractured his left jaw. He informed the magistrate that he has two children that he needs to care for. Magistrate Palmer informed the men that neither of them gave special reasons why they should be granted bail and they were both remanded until April twenty-fourth.  As we reported on Monday, the men were detained after they allegedly held up the proprietor of Kum Hua Store at gun point. Police say that sometime around eight-thirty on Saturday night one of the men went to the store on Daley Street pretending to be a customer and shortly after the approached the store’s owner and robbed three hundred and fifty dollars from the cash register. The men took off but police apprehended them on Eve Street and recovered about forty-four dollars in coins. Miguel was shot in the leg and was hospitalized since Saturday night, while Miguel was in custody.  When they appeared in court today they made allegations of police brutality. Miguel was seen limping which was caused by gun-shot injury when police shot him the day he was apprehended. Neal, who was observed with a swollen jaw, claims he suffered a broken left jaw under police’s watch.