Police officer kills teen, claims self-defence

The weekend was filled with crime and tonight’s broadcast is likely to read more like a police sitrep than a normal newscast. But the incident which has caused the most concern, public speculation, and in many cases outrage, was the death of a thirteen year old boy who was shot to death by a police officer. But reports about the incident are about as conflicting as they can get and first thing this morning, the police high command held a special press conference. While the department is standing behind its man, the family is also standing behind their boy and say no matter what he might have been doing that night, he did not deserve to die.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
On May twenty-eighth, thirteen-year-old Andrew Aaron Wallace successfully completed the prep programme at the Belize Friends Boys School. He was expected to start Anglican Cathedral College on August thirtieth, just around the same time he would have celebrated his fourteenth birthday. Today, however, his body lies in the city’s morgue. He was killed by a policeman’s bullet around nine-twenty Friday night.

What led up to this tragic ending is what a team of investigators are trying to determine, but their initial findings lead the police high command to believe that the actions taken by Police Constable #424 Randy Sanchez were necessary. On that night, P.C. Sanchez and his wife, who is also a police officer, were in civilian clothing, walking along Kut Avenue when they saw two men on bicycles. P.C. Sanchez reports they were not far away from the duo when he saw one of them raise a handgun and fire a shot at another young man standing in the area who had been talking to two women.

This morning, in a police press briefing, Head of National Crime Investigation Branch, Senior Superintendent of Police, Mario Vernon, says from what they know, P.C. Sanchez tried to stop a crime in progress.

Sr. Supt Mario Vernon, Head of National C.I.B.
“And he shouted at the assailant to stop, to freeze, this is the police and that assailant turned towards the police officer and was taking aim and the officer, quite rightly, fired about four shots. He did not know at the time, it would seem, that he had hit the target because the two fellows, they turned about and rode into East Collet Canal going in a southward direction.”

It was then P.C. Sanchez reported that he saw the shooter try to get rid of his weapon by throwing it into a canal. But as he tried to do so, the person later identified as Wallace fell off his bicycle onto the street and that is when P.C. Sanchez realised he had shot the suspect. Wallace was taken to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. At the scene, police say they recovered a point thirty-eight revolver loaded with four live rounds of ammunition and one expended shell.

Sr. Supt. Mario Vernon
“I am convinced to a point that the police officer, who is Mr. Sanchez, his actions were justified. And I say to a point because we know that it is not conclusive until this matter either goes to a criminal trial or a coroner’s inquest and they have the final word, whichever court system it reaches.”

Police would not comment on whether or not Wallace had ever been in trouble with the law before, but this fifteen-year-old, whose identity we will protect, is the minor Wallace allegedly shot at that night. The high school student says Wallace was one of the two young men who approached him. The minor says he recognised the youths but was not overly concerned about his safety until…

Voice of Fifteen year old
“I see the deceased he hand the next young man the bike then he come, he come towards me and fired a shot at me. He never did catch me.”

Off camera, the minor says he and Wallace did not have any previous misunderstandings, but that there was friction between himself and the dead boy’s companion which dates back to when both teenagers were only young children in primary school.

The police claim that Wallace was hit in left hand, left leg, and left side of the body, but the family says they are disturbed by pictures of his injuries which they say show that he was also shot in the back. Furthermore, Irene Wallace says witnesses have told her that her son was first shot in the leg and as rode off on his bicycle, he was shot again.

Irene Wallace, Mother of Deceased
“He was shot from back on, not front on, so that’s totally?everything puzzle me about the situation. I could understand that the police shot him in the leg already as one person told me. I was not there; I was at work when I got the phone call. I could understand that he got shot already, that was enough and he was still riding his bicycle when the other blast hit him you see. Different people that were there and saw it, he dropped right on his side with his hands open. Where did the gun get to that he has then? That’s what I want them to come and say to me. Where did the gun get to? If he so had a gun and if he was so shooting after the person right, how could he get shot from back on right? He is dead now, there is no tale. A dead man has no tale, but I am here now as the mother, I am here to grieve and I am here to do deal with everything else.”

“If anybody should have a gun, I will be the one to have the gun not that child right? They are putting him as the man in the wild, wild, west, but what the commissioner should know and should do, he should discipline his rogue cops because right now I have no respect for them no more.”

Tragedy has become part of this family’s life since 1996. During that year, Wallace’s brother Amos Bonillo was shot and killed inside the house. In 2004, Wallace’s son, Charles Wallace Junior was shot and killed by another young man. Presently, another son is behind bars on a murder charge.

Irene Wallace
“I am trying hard to hold back right, but it’s hard you see. I buried one last year now I have to bury one. It doesn’t make no sense.”

Reporting for News Five, Jacqueline Woods.

P.C. Sanchez is currently attached to the Criminal Intelligence Unit. According to the police high command, this unit is frequently called upon to work beyond a normal eight hour shift and that in fact many officers carry firearms twenty-four hours a day. Following the incident this weekend, Sanchez has been given special leave, but is not interdicted from duty.