An Update on Shooting Victim Stephen Buckley
Back in 2010, Stephen Buckley was wrongfully shot in the head by Inspector Dennis Lopez. Still yet the Inspector is yet to be tried for attempted murder and dangerous harm. But earlier in September this year, the inspector was promoted to Deputy Commander in Corozal. In the years in between the shooting, there was a settlement awarded to Stephen Buckley by the government in the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. Buckley claims there was more compensation agreed to, but that was never awarded. Now that the inspector has moved up as the Deputy Commander, Buckley wants what he claims is owed to him. He has been unable to work for all these years and says he has a family to take care of. Here is News Five’s Hipolito Novelo.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
Forty-six-year-old Belize City resident Stephen Buckley was once a dancer.
Stephen Buckley, Complainant
“My life has completely changed. I used to be a dancer. I can’t even dance again. Many a days I cry about that, that I used to be a dancer and I can’t dance again. I use to be one of the baddest dancers, use to feel like I came from Jamaica. I am a born Belizean. That make I trip out sometimes, on the real. Sometimes I cry in my house thinking about what I use to do.”
But now this Belizean man has sleepless nights at his George Street house.
Stephen Buckley
Stephen Buckley
“Sometimes I can’t even sleep due to why I get shot. I use to feel like they will hurt me again.”
In April 2010, Buckley along with two other persons where shot while they were in a dodge van on Kraal Road. Buckley suffered a gunshot wound to the head and miraculously survived but with life-long physical constraints. The former construction worker relies on handouts.
Stephen Buckley
“I got my son in second form at Gwen Liz. I need to take care of him.”
Hipolito Novelo
“You are not able to go work?”
Stephen Buckley
“I went to the Mayor to get a work to even try and pick up paper. The mayor turns me around like yo-yo. Everywhere I go I try to get a job to survive to take care of my children but they turn me around. They say they will call me but they never call me.”
Hipolito Novelo
“So what do you do every day? What’s a day like in Mr. Buckley shoes?”
Stephen Buckley
“What I do every day is take my time and ride round and meet my friends and beg them for a little thing to survive and take care of my children.”
Three years after he was shot, in 2013 the government of Belize agreed on a financial package for Buckley. He was first paid one hundred thousand dollars and it was reported back then that a further settlement was in the pipeline.
Stephen Buckley
“The government said they would give me two hundred and fifty thousand. That is what they said I valued when I asked them for two million.”
Hipolito Novelo
“And you only received one hundred thousand.”
Stephen Buckley
“I only received a hundred thousand. I won’t tell you no lie. Yes I did get a hundred thousand but what do they feel that should take of care of me for the rest of my life? No. When I got that little money I had people videoing me and all kind of thing saying that I was partying. I wasn’t partying.”
Hipolito Novelo
“People say that you blow off a hundred thousand dollars just like that. How did that happen?”
Stephen Buckley
“Well, I’ll explain to you. I paid my bills that I owed. And that is owe I got over it and now I don’t owe anybody.”
Buckley is now asking to be paid what he was promised. His frustration grew when he saw Inspector Dennis Lopez, the man who allegedly shot Buckley and who has been charged with attempted murder and dangerous, back in the force following years on interdiction.
Dennis Lopez
Stephen Buckley
“One day I was going to Orange Walk and I see the man in his uniform in a vehicle. I surprise to see this man in uniform. This man wasn’t supposed to be working. This man isn’t suppose to be working. I was supposed to wait until when the case call up and the case hasn’t been called up as yet. From they took the case to Belmopan I no hear anything about it. And I really want to know what is going on with this case because from they took the case to Belmopan they say they will get to me and they never get to me. They lone take me around like a yo-yo.”
But Commissioner of Police Chester Williams disagrees.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“I don’t see why that will cause a controversy. Mr. Lopez has not been convicted in any court of law. He has been out there in interdiction for over ten years which is totally wrong. Because of the fact that he has not yet been tried and he has been out there left, collecting a salary doing nothing so he was brought back to work. If it is that the matter is tried and he is convicted then we move from there.”
But after ten years Inspector Lopez still hasn’t received a date for his trial. He, however, has been promoted to the post of Deputy Officer commanding Corozal even though he has been “doing nothing” for those ten years.
Stephen Buckley
“What I got to tell Mr. Chester Williams is that if he gets back his job might as well I get back my rest of money same way. So I d ask any one of them who is holding back this case let’s get this case going so I can get the rest of my money. I need to take care of my children.”
Hipolito Novelo
“What if that does not happen any time soon? What if it happens in the next six, seven years?”
Stephen Buckley
“Well then I will suffer.”
Reporting for News Five I am Hipolito Novelo.
