WPC Pate recovering from chopping incident

On December sixth senior woman police constable Marilyn Pate accompanied personnel from the Human Development Department on a routine domestic abuse call to Trial Farm in the Orange Walk District. It turned out to be anything but routine, though, as WPC Pate was attacked by the alleged assailant in the domestic abuse case – Oscar Perez, also known as Oscar Hernandez. Pate was viciously chopped to the head, and was rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital in critical condition while Perez escaped. Today Mike Rudon was in Orange Walk and got an update on her condition.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

WPC Marilyn Pate has been a Police Officer for six years, and is lucky to be alive after she was chopped repeatedly in the head while on a routine call in Trial Farm. She was first listed in a critical condition, but has now been discharged.

Inspector Julius Cantun, Second OC, Orange Walk Police Formation

Inspector Julius Cantun

“WPC Pate has been released from the hospital, she remains in a stable condition and is recuperating from the injuries. The results from her cat scan as we had mentioned has revealed that she has a fractured skull but she is going to the hospital everyday for dressing and checkup and we hope that pretty soon she will be back to normal.”

Robert Pate, Father of WPC Pate

“She has five chop wounds on her head and according to the cat scan she has a fractured skull. Two was on her hand and one grazed her here she complained about a swelling on her face and numbing in both hands.”

The Orange Walk Police Department has been raising funds to provide assistance to Pate. That has raised eyebrows since the WPC was injured in the line of duty. But second in charge of the Orange Walk Police formation Julius Cantun says they are doing it out of support for their fallen colleague, and not because the Ministry has been negligent.

Inspector Julius Cantun

“I want to clarify certain misconceptions that the public may have. The tamales sale was just an effort on behalf of our colleagues here in Orange Walk that we just want to chip in and help out in any way we can. That does not mean that the department has not gotten involved and has not rendered assistance, I must say that it is the police department that help in the cost of the cat scan and other minor expenses so far. So whatever fundraising that the Orange Walk police detachment is doing is just out of the heart of her colleagues because we work close together and we said okay lets chip in too and lets show her our support and I have nothing to do with the ministry not helping her out financially.”

WPC Pate did not have any Police backup when she accompanied personnel from the Human Development Department on the domestic abuse call. The attack on and near murder of his colleague has been a wake-up call for Cantun in terms of ensuring that protocol is observed at all times.

Inspector Julius Cantun

Oscar Hernandez

“In no way, we have protocols in place as to how to deal with specific situations. We have in service training as to how we are to approach certain situation. It is no secret that we caution our police officer to treat every situation as something that could escalate to the worst case scenario. In this case it was unfortunate, I was not aware that the WPC went to assist the Ministry of Human Development but she is a senior police officer and she realized that she was committing and error in to getting the assistance and the backup of other male officers. There were other male persons on the scene but they are not police officers, they work with the Ministry of Human Development and of course I spoke to her personally and she says it was an oversight on her part. But of course it is a wakeup call for us that people out there do not respect the uniform and do not police officers and their duties.”

Oscar Perez, also known as Oscar Hernandez, has been evading Police since last week Thursday, and currently he is Orange Walk’s most wanted.

Inspector Julius Cantun

“We have the detectives working on intelligence as to where he can be located, we have our operations teams also working diligently, we have our night patrols conducting frequent searches and checks in specific areas, we have distributed wanted posters to the ports of entry and all formations and yes we endeavor to find him as soon as we get any indications as to where he can be.”

Robert Pate

“My daughter all her life wanted to be a police officer and her dream came through and has six years in the job. She wants to continue to be a police officer and too move up within the ranks of the police. But this is a setback for her what this gentleman has done to my daughter. I hope that the public will hear our appeal and assist the police to bring this guy to justice.”

Cantun says that there is no indication that Perez has left the country. Mike Rudon for News Five.