Internal Inquiry Ongoing for Q.R.T. Four

Dyandre Chee

An internal inquiry by the Development and Compliance Unit, as well as the Professional Standards Branch, into the conduct of four law enforcement officers assigned to the Quick Response Team remains open.  Those individuals are presently being held following the shooting death of nineteen-year-old Dyandre Chee in Orange Walk on Saturday night.  It was a harrowing experience for a group of motorcyclists who were being pursued at high speed by police officers responding to a report of shots being fired in the vicinity.  While Chee lost his life during the incident, investigation is being carried out within the department to determine the extent of breaches on the part of the policemen.  Assistant Superintendent Alejandro Hernandez and Commissioner of Police Chester Williams have weighed in on the procedures that ought to have been followed by the responding officers.

Alejandro Hernandez

ASP Alejandro Hernandez, Development & Compliance Unit, B.P.D.

“There were factors to consider, for example, the time of the day, the condition of the road, specifically to save life.  Was there population density out on the road that night, based on the information received and shots fired and officers returning fire, they had to consider if they continued a pursuit or leave it at that.  But after communicating with the station commander that night who was going to view these factors and decide that we’ll continue with this pursuit or not, because if they had prior knowledge of where these persons can be found then the pursuit could have stopped.  Also, the pursuit policy states that if you’re in pursuit of someone fleeing, you do not fire warning shots.”

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I can tell you for the first time in the history of the police department, we have a partnership with the Human Rights Commission and we even went to the extent of creating some very nice human rights booklets that we issued to police officers.  We went even farther to make sure that the legal unit within our department went around the country and ensured that they trained police officers on the human rights policy, the pursuit policy and the use of force policy because these are policies that we know are very essential to the performance of police officers out on the streets.  Any breach of those policies by members of the department must be taken very seriously, especially when the outcome is what we saw in Orange Walk on Saturday night.  So Mr. Hernandez is putting together his report from the compliance standpoint and his report with the findings will be submitted to the Professional Standards Branch.  Again, the Professional Standards Branch also forms part of the investigation team.”