PC Modesto Cucul is Murdered Near Crique Jute

Modesto Cucul

On November second, PC Osbourne Martinez was murdered in the line of duty in Belize City when robbers shot at him on Regent Street West. This morning, in southern Belize, another cop was shot and killed. Police Constable Modesto Cucul was ambushed inside his vehicle a mile from the San Antonio and Crique Jute junction in Toledo sometime after ten o’clock this morning. Traveling with the off-duty officer was his common-law wife, Adelita Cal who was also injured and remains hospitalized at the Punta Gorda Polyclinic.  Cucul is stationed in Belmopan, but the couple was visiting with Cal’s family in San Jose Village, which is located about a mile from where he was murdered. Police do not know the motive for his killing.  It is known that years ago, Cucul was charged and acquitted, along with another officer in P.G., of the murder of Michael Valerio. Valerio was beaten to death and after years behind bars, the officers were freed. Police are not making a link to that murder and investigations are ongoing. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

A police officer and his common-law wife were gunned down during an ambush in the Toledo District, near Crique Jute Village, this morning.  Reports are that Constable Modesto Cucul was waylaid as he drove along a stretch of road approximately a half mile away from the junction of San Antonio and Crique Jute.  Cucul was driving his personal vehicle with his common-law wife seated on the passenger side when someone opened fire on them.  During the deadly spray of bullets the officer was fatally struck in the abdomen and neck, his wife was also injured in the abdomen.   When police responded to the scene of the shooting, Cucul’s body was observed motionless outside of the vehicle, his service weapon was found on the right side of his waist.  Modesto Cucul, attached to the Belmopan Police Station, was one of two officers charged in July 2012 for the murder of Michael Valerio who was beaten to death in Punta Gorda Town.

It is not clear whether the attack on Cucul almost six and a half years later is in any way related to that incident.  At the time, it was alleged that Cucul and an accomplice took a baton and walloped Valerio, injuring him to the head, body and left side of his face.  The melee, it was reported, resulted from a bicycle being stolen.  The men allegedly returned to Central Club where they caught up with Valerio and two other men and administered a severe beating.  While they were remanded for two years, the officers were both acquitted of murder in July 2012 when they appeared in the Dangriga Supreme Court.  Since then, both men were reinstated into the police department and Cucul was stationed in Belmopan until the time of his death.  The condition of Cucul’s wife is unknown at the moment.  He is the second officer within the past six weeks to have been shot and killed.

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.