Kendis Flowers brutalized by police

ervin james

Eighteen year old Kendis Flowers has just been released from police custody. He was detained as a suspect in the homicide earlier this year of a gang leader who was killed on Ross Pen Road. Flowers’ claimed that aside from enduring a beating at the hands of the police, he was dangerously exposed to the gangs as the one who pulled the trigger. He tells his story to News Five’s Isani Cayetano.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Twenty-two year old Ervin James, known in the streets as Beans, was ruthlessly gunned down while sitting inside his vehicle on the night of April eight.  James was visiting the home of a relative on Ross Pen Road when his assailants blindsided him and opened fire indiscriminately.  His murder, some say, was a hit carried out by a rival gang on Belize City‘s south side.  It has been eight months since the incident and Belize City police were no closer to identifying a suspect in the fatal shooting.  That was until earlier this week when a patrol vehicle picked up eighteen year old Kendis Flowers who was socializing with his friends near the Cumberbatch Field.  While he was initially held for questioning Flowers alleges police brutality as he was badly beaten by the officers who detained him.

Voice of: Kendis Flowers

“Monday around two-thirty they pick up me across from the long barracks.  Dehn ker me fi P.I. murder, investigating me when they took me up to Major Crimes [at] the C.I.B. office.  The sergeant questioned me and he said da noh soh he hear it, he hear it differently.  I tell he I noh know nothing bout this crime, then now he send fi something outta di next room, I neva did know da what [and he] put a black bag ova my head.  [The] first whop da mi eena my ribs, cut my wind, I couldn’ta m breathe fi wah lee while.  [He] tell me mek I kneel down fronta dehn and staat whop me up more.  I deh pan my back when ih whop me pan my foot [and] bust open my foot.”

The abuse, Flowers says, did not end there.  He was then taken to the area of Mayflower Street known as Ghost Town where Ervin James lived.

Voice of: Kendis Flowers

“Afta dehn done beat me dehn put me backa di black Prado and dehn tell me dehn wah ker me round the same person, the murda weh dehn blame me fa, fu he area.  And dehn ker me round deh [and] dehn meet wa young man.  Dehn show di young bwai me [and] dehn ask di young bwai if he know me.  Di young bwai say first time he sih me eena ih life.  Young bwai say first he sih me eena ih life but then the officer, the sergeant, tell ahn yeah dis da di bwai weh kill yoh friend.”

Despite the individual not being able to identify him Flowers says he is now a prime target and fears for his safety.

Voice of: Kendis Flowers

“Di young bwai look pan my face and mek dehn mark my face and I innocent ah dat right deh.  Dehn mark my face [and] put me eena wah gang rivalry now.  When dehn done now if ker me pan Mayflower, tek out me outta di vehicle mek I stand up pan dih lane then dehn put me back een.  When dehn done put me back een dehn ker me back da police station and lock me down back.”

isani cayetano

According to Flowers he was held in detention for over forty-eight hours, at the end of which the officers on duty then confiscated his medico-legal forms preventing him from filing a formal complaint at the Internal Affairs Department.  He was subsequently released without any charges being brought against him. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.