Another Officer-involved Fatality is a Black Eye for Belize Police Department
The fatal officer-involved shooting comes at a time when the citizenry is awaiting a decision in the manslaughter case involving former policeman Kareem Martinez, who is accused of the shooting death of teenager Laddie Gillett who was gunned down while fleeing from officers in Placencia on July 14th, 2021. It also succeeds the conclusion of the Allison Major settlement, following another deadly officer-involved shooting in July 2019.
Isani Cayetano
“How is the department treating with the situation in light of the fact that we‘re awaiting a decision in the Laddie Gillett matter which is an officer-involved shooting and, in a sense, it comes on the heels of the settlement with the Allsion Major matter which is also a police-involved shooting? This is inevitably another black eye for the department.”
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“Well, I would like that people be fair. We‘re not going to profess to be a perfect organization. Just like every other organization in the world, we are imperfect, but to be fair to us, we have been holding our officers accountable. Like you said, we are awaiting the decision in the Laddie Gillett matter. It shows that we are serious about holding officers accountable when they step out of line. It just so happens that police officers are recruited from among the masses of people and the fact that they are, they are also susceptible to the weaknesses of humans and with that, no matter what we do, as much as we would not want to have incidents like these, they are going to happen from time to time.”
