Gunshot victims testify to Com. of Inquiry
The Commission of Inquiry into the July thirtieth riots at Tower Hill Bridge reconvened in Orange Walk Town this morning. News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams, herself an eyewitness to the action, is just back to our studios with the following report.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
The Commission of Inquiry is back where it all started last week in Orange Walk Town and it’s day five of the hearings. Six witnesses testified this morning before the Commission of Inquiry. Undoubtedly the two most important were Miguel Angel Novelo and George Sanchez.
Novelo told the Commission that the police started tear gassing the crowd first, forcing the angry protestors to retaliate by throwing sticks, bottles and stones. When asked if he too threw stones, he smiled and said, “no.”
Novelo told justice Blackman that he was standing in a crowd of about one hundred people in front of a bus, on the Orange Walk side of the Toll Bridge when he heard a shot. Frightened, he was moving out of harm’s way when a bullet caught him in the upper left thigh.
When asked if he saw who was shooting, Novelo said “no.” Although George Sanchez told the commission he saw a B.D.F. soldier discharge a first shot, which caught the rail of the bridge and bored a hole in the right leg of his trousers, lucky for him the shot never touched his flesh. Sanchez testified that the crowd shouted “Live rounds firing,” so he ran for cover in a bus.
At that time, he said he heard bullets hitting the body of the bus. He told the three-man commission, “I threw myself on the floor of the bus face down. I heard shots cease, so I stood up, then I saw and heard shots coming through the window. That was when I got hit in my lower left arm, two times.”
Officer in Charge of the Orange Walk Police Station Inspector James Magdaleno, who first testified on Wednesday, was recalled for a second testimony this afternoon. Justice Blackman bombarded him with questions, which centred around his familiarity with the section of the criminal code, which deals with rioting and if he’s trained in riot drill — all his answers were “no!”
The Commissioner of Inquiry takes a break tomorrow for the inaugural opening of the Supreme Court right here in Orange Walk Town. They convene tomorrow afternoon at 2:00, when the witness will be Froyland Gilharry a member of the Transport Advisory Council. Reporting from Orange Walk Town, Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
A review of the footage shot the day of the riot by News 5 cameraman Brent Toombs shows that George Sanchez, shown wearing the green shirt, was not shy about expressing his feelings and was on several occasions, carrying stones in his hand. Sanchez, like Novelo, had testified that he did not throw any stones during the riot.
