Shot by cop and Steven Buckley ready to buck slow wheels of justice
Steven Buckley was shot last year during a police operation near the Cumberbatch Field. What appeared at first like an open and shut case has lingered in the system for months and Buckley has been unable to work since then. It’s close to nine months since the incident, and the Buckley family is growing frustrated at the snail’s pace for justice to be delivered. News Five’s Delahnie Bain had a sit down today with the family.
Delahnie Bain, Reporting
After being shot by police during a Restore Confidence Operation last April, Steven Buckley has fallen on extremely hard financial times. Buckley has been unable to work since the April twenty-seventh 2010, which has made life difficult for his common-law-wife, Juanita Juarez and their four children.
Steven Buckley
steven buckley
“I noh di get no kinda help and thing; no kinda help from no one. Only place weh di help right now dah Travellers.”
Delahnie Bain
“And have you heard anything from police?”
Steven Buckley
“I noh hear nothing from dehn. I noh hear nothing from police, dehn noh come tell me A nor B. Still yet can’t do nothing fi myself right now.”
Delahnie Bain
“So how have you all been getting along? How have you been keeping with your bills and so on?”
Steven Buckley
“Well, dah thanks to mi landlord right now. Dah di landlord di help me out right and ih noh charge me no rent right now.”
The couple has filed a lawsuit against the Police Department, but at their last hearing, the court was still awaiting the case file.
Juanita Juarez, Common-Law-Wife of Steven Buckley
juanita juarez
“The last court hearing was December and they said that the D.P.P. had the case file and dehn noh send it een dah di C.I.B. so dehn put another dat fi di case again, di seventeenth ah February. I neva satisfied with weh dehn mi di seh so I mek it my business and gone dah di D.P.P. gone find out if ih have di file and weh dah di delay. So when I gone deh, Miss Sheryl-Lynn Vidal tell me dat she send een di file from October last year, 2010 and she made some phone calls to find out where the case file is. So when she call, she find out dat it seems dat di C.I.B. office noh even know ih deh deh.”
Frustrated with the delay, Juarez headed over to the C.I.B. office, demanding answers and the help they had promised her family.
Juanita Juarez
“I need answers, I need fi know weh di go on, I seh because it seems to me unnu noh care because me di suffer, my family di suffer, unnu noh know how I eat every day, how I manage because I got bills fi pay. Right now I noh even di pay rent, light and water, nothing and unnu noh di do nothing fi help me. Christmas dehn di give people food inna box. My Steven should ah be di first one pan dehn list. Dehn noh have he pan di list, dehn pass my house and give somebody else weh dehn seh need it. Dehn noh think he need? Dah dehn got ah so.”
But she says all she got was the famous police line… “the matter is under investigation”.
Juanita Juarez
“I noh know weh more dehn di investigate, cause from when di thing happen dehn di investigate. So if dehn noh get weh dehn want I noh know weh dehn wah get more. Weh dehn di look fa? I noh know weh dehn di look fa.”
Delahnie Bain for News Five.
They are just dragging their feet, hoping you will get frustrated & give up or miss a court date so it can be tossed out. I have a suggestion: ask them if they have job that you can do in the meantime while your case makes it through the court. If Boots is your area rep, call him or better yet have your landlord call him, they expect him to pay his property tax & he cannot pay it until you catch up on your rent.
Why havn’t someone been convicted for this young man’s shooting?Furthermore why is the Police department not assisting Mr Buckley’s family when they’re the cause of his present situation.Stop the injustice Mr Barrow start acting like the the leader of this jewel.You’re busy worrying about the tourists when we’ve got brothers killing each other.
You know let’s take a look st this entire incident that occurred last year unfortunately for Buckly. So Buckly was inside his truck coming from a job when police claimed they stopped the truck and somewhere along the line the stupid police officer claimed the gun went off by accident!
Gimme a break gorilla! Who the hell will believe the cop’s story? Accident or not this man was coming home from work! He was doing something positive earning a living so he could support his wife and family for God sakes! I mean this should be an open and shut case here people! The cop shot this man although might not have been intentional but come on, do they really think Buclky will just roll over and play dead? This man is a victim and needs a quite feasible compensation for his loss and his injuries ok. He lost an eye and they don’t sell those at the market either! He lost his ability to work and provide for his family, that’s a terrible dilemma for ANY man to have to endure!
So instead for just slapping someone on the wrist for this crime they need to give payment where its due! Stop toying around with this Man’s life and compensate him lucratively so he can at least help his family until things get better for him and his family.
So at the end of the day these damn maniac cops were on the streets trying to ” restore freedom ” as they call it right? Well they unleashed quite a nightmare for poor Buckly …
Another bent Copper, another ‘lost’ file in the Internal Affairs Office. Must be a very big office, as all the files go in (Hundreds a year), yet none come back out. OK, a few do, only to get lost in the equally useless DPP’s office!
Don’t hold your breath expecting any kind of result from this, and it’s probably best not to push the issue, as the next time a Coppers gun ‘accidentally’ goes off close to you, it will be a ‘accidentally’ very accurate shot, and you’ll be in your grave. Dead men can’t tell tales on the Police!
this situation must be really frustrating for this man and his family. gov of bze need to pay up for hiring incompitent police officers. everyday i read the news to see if something is going to change to give me a glimmer of hope that the jewel would be restored, but i always come away dissapointed. at this point it is safe to say that the bze law enforcement and the judicial system are a joke. these people needs to be retrained (yesterday).
I am as tired as you sweet heart with the police’s famous quote “the matter is under investigation.” Belize is a country of democracy and equality yet we are measured by our civic status, ethnicity, and even our sexual orientation, especially by police officers and our problems are never solved but left as one more mystery in their books. Shame on the Police department…..
Thank you Channel 5 for bringing this case back into the headlines. What happened to Mr. Buckley was indeed tragic and I will always maintain that the BPD should’ve just settled with The Buckleys as the department can do without the negative publicity. I’m surprised that the humanitarian lawyers are not jumping at this ‘easy win’ case as this case has been poorly managed in many ways:
1) There’s has been no report of the cop who did the shooting being punished, as is demanded by law.
2) The BPD owes this man and his family adequate compensation for pain and suffering, and for lost wages. To think that all Mr. Buckley wanted was a few groceries.
3) The BPD owes this man for the huge medical bill accumulated in his name at the KHMH. He will also need financial coverage for rehabilitation and future medical consultations, and counseling, in order to ensure a smoother recovery.