Police Brass Discuss Gang Matrix
ACP Dezeree Phillips
Assistant Commissioner of Police Dezeree Phillips and Deputy Officer Commanding Eastern Division Edward Broaster also explained the gang matrix, as it relates to the ongoing criminal activities. According to Phillips, while one gang is prominently being named in the ongoing spate, it is likely that the shootings are being carried out by other groups closely tied to the George Street Gang.
ACP Dezeree Phillips, O.C., Eastern Division
“To the ordinary person who doesn’t really have an appreciation of what is happening on the streets with gangs and affiliates is that it may appear to be random shootings, but it is not necessarily so because what we have to understand is that there are so many groups and there are so many affiliates—one gang to the other. So for you to understand what is happening, there are affiliates that are involved and not necessarily just random shootings.”
Reporter
“Are you able to say, are you concerned that this happened in the middle of an operation that you all are, I believe, in the midst of a quite heavy operation with extra personnel and here you have this outburst of violence and there is no ability to contain it?”
Edward Broaster
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster, Deputy O.C., Eastern Division
“Well Jules, there will always be incidents that occur in any time period and within any operation. But what we intend to do is to ensure that the escalation of this violence does not go any further and we will, as the commissioner and as the OC has said, we will be implementing other measures that will mitigate the escalation of these violence very shortly.”
In the wake of the casualties and the number of injured persons in Wednesday night’s madness, the K.H.M.H. issued today a release to say how it will deal with emergencies. The K.H.M.H. says it has activated its Mass Casualty Plan since Wednesday night and that personnel such as surgeons, nurses, support staff and the management team were called in to assist with the emergency crisis. The hospital says that it is capable of managing multiple surgeries at any one time and that on Wednesday night, three emergency surgeries were carried out simultaneously. So tonight, one of the worst spates of violence in recent times has Belize City on lockdown as additional police and B.D.F. have been deployed to the streets.
