Dangrigans says police shooting was murder
The police internal affairs has launched an intensive investigation into the shooting death of Brenton Sabal in Dangriga. Sabal was shot by P.C. Javier Perez, after Perez alleges that Sabal attacked him with a knife. However, family and friends say that Sabal was murdered, as he ran away. Today, News 5’s Jacqueline Woods travelled south to try and put the pieces together to find out what really took place on Tuesday morning.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Dangriga residents are crying out for justice in the shooting death of twenty-year-old Brenton Sabal by the police.
Leonie Lino, Dangriga Resident
“If they want to, shoot the man on his foot. But they didn’t have to shoot to kill the man. The police shoot to kill the man, and the man is a humble. You won’t hear him fighting on the street, or thief. He didn’t thief anybody to let them kill the man like that. We have to see justice done.”
Elton Lewis, Dangriga Resident
“This an awakening for the young people. These are the people who should lookout for things like these, we are the ones being killed by police, so it’s more of an issue to us. I think we should get together politically and socially and take the problem to the government because we are the power.”
Oscar Nunez, Dangriga Resident
“At least they could tell them, freeze, stop, but according to the boys, not even that they mentioned. I think the police came straight to kill one of those boys.”
Victor Marin, Dangriga Resident
“They really feel like they’re supposed to really do something about it because it’s been happening for years and nobody is doing anything. They are a lot of youths out here, youths are the majority and if enough ghetto youths are saying that the police just the shoot man like that, how do you expect everybody to feel.”
Katherine Castillo, Dangriga Resident
No matter how bad a child is, that’s why they have to law, to serve and to protect, not to kill. It looks like they have license to kill and it really hurts.”
On Tuesday morning, the police went into the Lakeland area of Dangriga town looking for three men: Brenton Sabal, Roy “Bad Dog” Bernadez and Melvin Smith. They believed the men were involved in two armed robberies in the Stann Creek Valley and thought they were in the neighbourhood hiding out.
That morning the men were indeed in the area, at Melvin Smith’s house playing cards and smoking marijuana around this table, when Smith saw the police.
Melvin Smith
“I see when the policeman the come. So I just tell them and we just run. I ran out of the house first and Brenton ran out second and “Bad Dog” run out third.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Why did you run when you saw the police?”
Melvin Smith
“Because we were smoking weed; that’s about it. When we find out that the police the come we run.”
The men claim that as they ran away from P.C. Javier Perez, he took out his gun and fired a shot. Bernadez says after he heard the shot, he looked back and he saw Sabal lying on the ground.
Roy “Bad Dog” Bernadez
When this shot fired, I saw my boy drop to the ground. So I bend down and try to grab him, but when I turned around, I saw the police still had the gun in the air. So I continue run because I done know that they were looking for somebody else to shot again, that’s why we just continue to run.”
According to residents, the police put Sabal in the back of a pickup truck, but he died on the way to the Southern Regional Hospital. Sabal’s death certificate states the death was caused by traumatic shock due to a gunshot wound to the head. The police press release states P.C. Perez fired his weapon after Sabal attacked him with a knife. The police further state that Sabal received a gunshot wound to the left side of his face. But pictures taken of Sabal shortly after he was hit clearly shows a bullet wound to the back of his head.
Roy “Bad Dog” Bernadez
“Brenton no approach no police officer with a knife because he didn’t have a knife. I never saw him with any knife, because his pants didn’t have any belt, so there’s no way he could have gotten a knife, because it was me that was behind him. He was in front of me running, because Melvin is leading us, Brenton behind, then me. So there’s no way he could have wrestled with the police if I didn’t wrestle with them. I was supposed to stop and wrestle with them because I was the last one.
I no see no robbery. We didn’t go through any robbery, we were never on any robbery scene. We were in a house sitting down and run jokes with one another.”
Although the police have been questioning both Smith and Bernadez, they have not yet been detained nor charged with any crime. The Sabal family says they know their son did not attack the police, but only that he was shot as he and his friends ran away from them. The family says they just want the police to give an accurate account of what really took place and arrest P.C. Perez for their son’s death.
Simeon Sabal, Brenton’s Father
“It’s not for no money, or no anything. All we want is that everybody has their fair share, their legal rights, and I want to see justice prevail. If we let this go, somebody else can be tomorrow and I think it’s time to stop all this nonsense. This is over-advantage.”
Unconfirmed reports are that P.C. Perez has not been suspended from duty, but has been transferred to another district. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
The police would not comment on the matter, but say their Internal Affairs is investigating the incident.
