Deliveryman Dies after High Speed Chase with Police
Jesus Sacul
Two young men lost their lives in separate incidents in the north and tonight, we begin our newscast with the death of a twenty-year-old father of one. Jesus Sacul, a deliveryman, was travelling on a motorcycle driven by his nephew, Jairo Guerra when police set chase after them. The high-speed pursuit through several neighbourhoods ended on West San Martin Street after the police mobile reportedly hit the motorcycle, which crashed into a concrete wall. Sacul succumbed to the injuries he sustained, while Guerra remains hospitalized and under police guard. Sunday night’s incident opens up old wounds because four months ago, in March of this year, Dyandre Chee, a nineteen-year-old father of one was killed after he was also pursued by a police pickup truck and shot dead by an officer. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Twenty-year-old Jesus Sacul is tonight dead and his nephew, Jairo Guerra hospitalized, following yet another police-involved incident in Orange Walk Town. Sacul, a father of one, had just left home on a motorcycle driven at the time by Guerra. Shortly thereafter, they found themselves being pursued by a police mobile.
Olina Gonzalez
Olina Gonzalez, Mother of Jesus Sacul [Translated]
“It was at around seven o’clock that they left the house. They were here- they were here in the house. They didn’t have any problems, nothing. He told me, mom, I am going to go “take a spin”. He went out with my other grandchild to go take a spin on the motorcycle. They didn’t take long that they went over there. And when I heard that they were working- they didn’t take long- that’s what I told my daughter. I told her, here he comes—my son. What happened?>! I could have happened, I asked her. We ran outside and when we saw that they were coming fast and behind them the police. They were going to come through here but there not enough time so they went around- to the back and the police follows and the police officers almost crashed them but they went faster. They went there and when I heard two gunshots- and I told my other daughter “they shot them, they shot my son- they shot him.”
According to Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, police officers were responding to a crime.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“Police responded to information of two persons on a motorcycle that according to the police had just exited the yard of a known drug dealer and when the police saw the two individuals on the motorcycle, according to the police because I was not there, they are saying that they saw the pillion rider with what appeared to be a firearm. The police pursued them with the lights and siren on, indicating for them to stop and despite the police using lights and siren and indicating to them to stop, they did not stop. The pursuit continued through Trial Farm and ended up in front of a gas station where according to the police again, the motorcycle rider lost control of the motorcycle and collided into the fender of the police vehicle, falling to the ground. Both persons – the rider and the pillion rider – were taken to the Orange Walk Hospital where the, I think, the rider is the one who later succumbed to injuries received as a result of the accident.”
The police chase came to an end at the entrance of West San Martin Street. Reports are that Guerra lost control of the motorcycle when the police mobile hit the rare of the cycle and he careened off the road and into a concrete fence. Olina Gonzalez claims that shots were fired in the process.
Olina Gonzalez [Translated]
“I can’t run so she went to check and follow them and see if they shot them. But she said no. They went with the police behind them. I say, why is it that the police were following them if they were not doing anything. They had just left the house- they were not doing anything wrong. But we know that the police officers, they lie. When they do things, they want to wash their hands from it. My son was not drunk, nothing. They had just left the house. And the police chase them all the way to the gas station and they followed them in. A lot of people saw it, they saw when the police officers came and crashed the motorcycle and then maybe the fell and my son Jesus fell and hit his head and they say that the police officers ran the car over them, that is what the people say. They ran them over with the car and they started to kick him while he was on the ground. They finished killing my son. That is not fair! That is not fair that they killed my son! That is my son! He is not an animal! He is a human being. And now my son is dead. He is not coming back to me. They cannot return my son to me. They killed him. The police officers lie. They say my son had a gun. What gun?”
A criminal and an internal investigation are ongoing.
Chester Williams
“We have dispatched members of PSB and CIB to Orange Walk to investigate the matter properly. At this time, I am not in a position to say what actually happened. I will wait until I have received a full report from the investigating officers. The police did recover a firearm on the scene. They had said that prior to the accident, the pillion rider threw an object away and when they went and checked, they found a firearm which looks like a nine-millimeter pistol, according to them, but it turned out to be a pellet gun. When you are being pursued by the police, you know it is the police – just stop and see what the issues are. It makes life easier for both sides. It’s a sad situation. I sympathize with the family of the young man who passed away because he was the son of someone, he was the brother of someone and certainly they are going to grieve his loss.”
There was uproar outside of the Northern Regional Hospital following the news that Sacul had succumbed to his injuries. A group of motorcycle riders, as well as relatives and friends of the men, started a ruckus. This led to police firing non-lethal rounds that found their mark on several persons.
Chester Williams
“There was an issue at the Northern Regional Hospital in the aftermath of the passing of the young man. Police were called and we had sent additional police from Belmopan to Orange Walk to assist last night. And from what I observed from the footage, it showed that the police did exercise great restraint in the circumstances. We were able to hold the area until the crowd decided to disperse without any incident. So I think that is commendable on the part of the police.”
Jesus
Olina Gonzalez says that her son was not caught up in the criminal justice system and she wants justice for his killing.
Olina Gonzalez [Translated]
“They took his life, the same police officers. They took my son’s life. My son is not a trouble maker. And now they lie, the officers lie and they saw how they were taking drugs to go deliver all the way back there. What drugs? My son doesn’t do that. My son worked! He leaves here from six o’clock in the morning. He returns until 9 o’clock in the night from his job here at his house.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
