Thompson dead, questions abound
In a decade of chronicling the ups and downs of life in the sometimes tarnished jewel we call Belize, it stands out as one of the strangest and most disturbing stories this news organisation has ever covered. Disturbing because three people are dead who shouldn’t be; an unarmed policeman and two men who are suspected of being involved in his demise. Strange, because the so-called facts of the case seem to change by the hour. All we can do is try our best to “sell it how we buy it.” We’ll open with a package by News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams, which recounts events that began in Maskall Village Wednesday morning and end with the anguished testimony of the mother of Edmund Velasquez early this afternoon. After that we’ll go back to the studio for an update.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
The all out manhunt for Kirk Louis “Psycho” Thompson has ended in his death. His body was found right here floating in the Maskall River around 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon.
Police say twenty-two year old Kirk Louis Thompson was wanted for the December twenty-second shooting death of Police Corporal, twenty-nine year old Fernando Rosado. Reports are that Rosado and a team came to apprehend Thompson from his Ebony Street apartment around 10:00 a.m. in connection with several robberies and shootings he allegedly committed. It was at that time police say Thompson and three other friends fire the fatal shot at an unarmed Corporal Rosado.
Three days shy of three weeks later, Thompson turned up dead in Maskall Village on the old Northern Highway. Jose Adonai, who lives on the bank of the river, said he saw the corpse when he went out to tie his horse on Wednesday.
Jose Adonai, Found Dead Bodies
“This morning I see the first body in the jungle and I call police. The police come and we follow. And me and my friends gone see if Johncrow di drop deh, I gone see it again and I find the next body deh. So we gone da Maskall and call again. I see the first body at the middle ah the river.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Was it clothed?”
Jose Adonai
“Yes. It didn’t have a shirt on, only jeans pants and no shoes.”
Although Adonai spotted the body early on and the police brought the corpse to the morgue at K.H.M.H. before 7:00 a.m., police sources told the media the body was not picked up until early afternoon–all in an effort to avoid alarm they say.
The media weren’t the only ones given the run-around by police, Yvonne Craig Thompson’s mother wasn’t even told her son’s body was at the morgue and when she got wind of it, a hurricane of emotions was spawned.
Yvonne Craig, Kirk Thompson’s Mother
“They turn we round and tell we, we have to go all the way to the Prime Minister’s house. The Prime Minister’s wife, call Jeffries and call the Ombudsman and that’s how when we got back the Ombudsman took us and his father, Mr. Thompson.
I think it’s the condition of the child mek they neva want me to see him. If you’re saying that the child drownded, what’s the reason why you wouldn’t contact the mother. I heard the child deh da hospital from morning. All this while I’m at work. I neva know if my friends neva come meet me and tell me weh they hear. We gone dah hospital and when we get dah hospital they have the morgue lock and we can’t get in. We were all about trying to find out, and yet still up to now if I didn’t go to the hospital after I finish listen to the news, I would have never known.”
Craig said she was out of the country attending her mother’s funeral when she heard that her son was wanted for killing a cop. She feels that if he’s done the act he should pay–but not at the hands of the police.
Yvonne Craig
“My lee boy swell, if you neva know him you’d neva know him again. The only reason I recognise him–I knew him from the time I walk into the morgue–I see his toe, so I knew it was him. The father asked me if I sure, so I knew that he had a tattoo “Y.C.”, my initials on his shoulder, and that’s how I showed him. I didn’t really see his head, my little boy swell like a man that has five hundred pounds. He has a big swelling here with a hole in it.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Like bullet hole?”
Yvonne Craig
“Like a bullet hole. Then they said that he drownded.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Who told you that he drowned?”
Yvonne Craig
“This is what the police deh di say. Nobody neva really come out exactly and tell me, because up to know the police no say nothing to me.
Then it’s like something’s coming out of his mouth, it looks like his tongue weh swell di come out his mouth. I don’t see no teeth in his mouth. His whole chest from the waist come up swell out, way out. The boy bruised, bruised, bruised. That dah no drownded. It’s bruise and they throw him into the water and say that he drownded. They didn’t know that the boy couldn’t help himself no more, so they know that once they throw him eena the water, he wah drownded because ih can’t help himself no more.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So you think they beat him to death?”
Yvonne Craig
“They did, they did.”
The family had the same problems this morning at the morgue.
Ann-Marie Williams
“Why is it they can’t come in.”
Guard #1
“That’s just an order that we get.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“From who?”
Guarding #2
“You have to talk to Mr. Henderson. Henderson says he will come…”
Yvonne Craig
“When?”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Who gave you the orders that they can’t come in?”
Yvonne Craig
“I will not give any comments.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Are you sorry that you didn’t go looking for him?
Yvonne Craig
“Of course I am. But then I never know where to start.”
This woman, Agnes Velasquez is starting on a happier note than Craig. She went to identify the second body that was fished out of the same river around 7:00 Wednesday night at the morgue. According to police, Velasquez was at home with Thompson when the shooting occurred. But was it the same Velasquez who accompanied Thompson to Maskall?
Ann-Marie Williams
“You don’t think the corpse at the morgue is your son.”
Agnes Velasquez, Edmund Velasquez’s Mother
“No.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You said he had some distinctive tattoos; tell me where.”
Agnes Velasquez
“One on his right foot, his name is on his right foot, his initials and a gun tattoo on his right hand.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So how did you feel when you found out that it wasn’t your son last night.”
Agnes Velasquez
“Well I feel relieved. But because he’s still yet at large…but I told them that I’m going to identify more better this morning if it’s surely him. So I said that I wasn’t going and would send my daughter the nurse to identify him this morning and see. She said she don’t think it’s him and then this morning my son went and identify him and said it’s not him also.”
Although Velasquez is not lying in the morgue, his mom is still worried. Worried that her son may yet be brought in dead. She said her greatest wish would be for him to…
Agnes Velasquez
“Give up himself before they di torture him and torture him. I wouldn’t want that to happen.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Do you know where he is?”
Agnes Velasquez
“I don’t know where he is?”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Have you had any contact with him?”
Agnes Velasquez
“No, none at all, that’s why I’m worrying right now.”
And since the corpse is not that of Velasquez, the obvious question arises; who is it? Until we have some answers to this and a number of other crucial questions, the Velasquez family will not be the only ones worrying…and the Thompson and Rosado families will not be the only ones mourning. Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
Ava Lovell, Anchor
Welcome back. I’m joined in the studio by Ann-Marie Williams. Ann, this story took a strange turn late this afternoon. Tell us about it.
Ann-Marie Williams
“I went to the cemetery this afternoon for the burial. I was told that Psycho was going to be buried this afternoon. I went there only to be informed by a woman at the cemetery that the other person is being buried behind me. I asked which other person and she said, John Doe. I asked who claimed the body and she said Velasquez’s body belongs to that little girl. I recognise her from this afternoon; she was Agnes’ daughter. So I said, “Is that your bother?” and she said, “My sister told me it’s my brother.” So I said “How come your sister told you it’s your bother?”
So I saw her mom coming, and I went up to Agnes and I said “How come its your son? Didn’t you tell me that he had a gun tattoo on his hands and his name on his leg? And he wasn’t decomposed to that extent that you couldn’t have seen it.”
She told me “My daughter told me she thinks it’s my son.” I said, “How can you think it’s your son, I mean that’s totally unacceptable.” She said, “Well I think it’s my son.” I said, “You’re taking this body? She said, “Yes, I don’t know what to do.” I said “Yes, a mother must know her child; you cannot really accept that.”
And her daughter is a nurse. I met her at the K.H.M.H. this morning, Charlotte. Charlotte said I’m certain that’s not my brother because he had the two tattoos and it’s not there and I would have seen it.”
Ava Lovell
And we just saw the tape, with the mother saying that it’s not her son.
Ann-Marie Williams
” Right. And he’s extremely dark and he was in the water?the person fished out of the water is a little clearer than me. He would have gotten a whole lot darker. She even went on to say that he’s taller, his ears are like bats?so I was appalled this evening, I didn’t know what to say.”
Ava Lovell
And where are the bodies now?
Ann-Marie Williams
” They have been buried. If we roll tape right now, we can see where Velasquez was. He had a pauper’s coffin at that, a real rough coffin put in the whole. The girl that’s on the coffin crying, that’s Velasquez’s sister. I’m not sure what took place. (People crying around the grave)
This is Psycho’s funeral now. A lot of his friends wanted to open the coffin to see him and his mom said he’s in a very bad state, you cannot open the coffin, so they settled in a bit and the preacher got his word in to start to pay their last respects. (Coffin being lowered into the ground)”
Ava Lovell
Strange indeed Ann. Could you tell us what’s the official version of how the men died?”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Well according to a government press release, it is said here that the death has been determined to be asphyxia due to drowning. It also said that there’s no visible signs of violence on either bodies, yet you heard the poignant account from the mother. So I’m not sure, but in all my fifteen years of journalism, this is a day for the history books.”
Ava Lovell
Thanks Ann, we know you and the entire crew worked hard on this one.
