Dickie Bradley: “There is a stupid weed law”

Allyson Major Jr.

The decision to charge Corporal Kent Martinez with the lesser charge of manslaughter by negligence has the family of Allyson Major Junior up in arms. On Tuesday, through attorney Kareem Musa, the family fired off a statement in which it said that the decision is disappointing if not scandalous. They say that “this travesty deserves a proportionately condemning call as unacceptable.” Police set chase after Major Junior, suspecting that he had purchased drugs. According to investigators, during the chase in downtown Belize City, officers say they saw him throw a parcel of marijuana out of the moving vehicle. Attorney Richard Bradley spoke to that aspect of the investigation as well as the intent to murder someone.

Richard Bradley

Richard Bradley, Attorney

“So here we are, police are in pursuit of a man, allegedly because he bought some weed. My god, how can you kill somebody over weed? There is a stupid weed law that everyone is entitled to have ten grams of marijuana but it is illegal to buy it. It is illegal to grow it. It is illegal to sell it. Isn’t that the most stupid law that you have ever heard. If you are entitled to something, how is it that you get it? Don’t you either have to buy it or grow it? So we are living in weird times. A man who is a corporal of police for whatever reasons, he will explain when the time comes, fired shots at a vehicle that they were pursuing and an innocent human being lost his life. That is the situation. I know the community I live in that nobody will buy that story that has taken place. If the lawyers at the DPP office have looked and they cannot find enough evidence that there was the intent to kill. The principal in courts is that if you shoot a man in his foot or leg clearly you don’t want to kill. If you shoot him in his stomach or his chest or his head, you clearly must want to kill him. That is not necessarily the situation here. In a pursuit, if you start to shoot a firearm you start to bounce up, swerving, all the things can happen. When you think you are aiming at the tire, the gun bounce up and you shooting somebody and they die. So we are not in possession of the facts. The facts will emerge in due course.”