How Sam August Came Into Possession of a Backhoe
Samuel August Sr.
Aside from Samuel August Senior being the father of three male children whose custodial rights were granted to their maternal grandmother by the family court, little else is known about him. Truth be told, the horrendous act of what appears to be vehicular homicide was committed using machinery belonging to the Belize City Council where August has been employed for the last few years. According to Mayor Bernard Wagner, the disgruntled parent was working a late night shift doing remedial work in designated hotspots across the city and had been assigned use of the backhoe prior to the incident. The fact that August failed to return the excavator at the end of his shift has prompted CitCo to revise its protocol where the use of equipment is concerned.
Bernard Wagner
Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor
“To the best of my knowledge, I believe he was working with the council for over three years.”
Isani Cayetano
“Has he had any history, to your knowledge, of any erratic behavior while on the clock?”
Bernard Wagner
“Not to my knowledge, I haven’t been briefed on that yet, but to the best of my knowledge [he’s] a worker who comes in, does his job. I don’t have any knowledge of any behavioral problems that he has faced before.”
Isani Cayetano
“Can you share with us some information on how Mr. August came about this heavy equipment and perhaps the hours during which he was either in possession or operating that piece of machinery?”
Bernard Wagner
“Well, you know, we have hotspots that we work shifts. He was on the six o’clock to one o’clock shift, regular shift; we do that every day to deal with those areas that we put as hotspots.”
Isani Cayetano
“Was there a particular time that he was supposed to have returned the backhoe to wherever he got it from or the equipment shed or what have you?”
Bernard Wagner
“Well the shift is six p.m. to one a.m. and I would believe that our processes and systems that we put in place would have that that individual return the equipment back to the custodian of that equipment at the compound.”
Isani Cayetano
“In light of what has happened, considering that this incident was, in a sense, premeditated by the individual who committed the act, but it also puts the city council in a sticky situation in terms of being accountable for the whereabouts of its equipment and of course the surrender of these pieces of machinery at the end of the day. Are you guys looking either revising certain measures to be able to ensure that such an incident does not recur?”
Bernard Wagner
“Well obviously again, in hindsight you always look at these things obviously, but we do have systems and processes in place and we certainly will look at how we could retool, refine it so that it works and so that we have a real, on-the-clock type of system in place to ensure that when equipments are not in use that they are returned back in a timely fashion.”
