Shots Fired on Faber’s Road as Cops Storm Family Property
Police descended at 29 Faber’s Road, Belize City, on Saturday night to break up a group of persons gathered there. The family members routinely meet to play games of chance but gatherings of more than ten persons are not allowed due to the COVID pandemic. So the police are cracking down and during the operation on Saturday night, shots were fired though minors were also in the yard. Here is News Five’s Isani Cayetano with a report.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Gatherings of more than ten persons from various households, for the purpose of recreating, are frowned upon by law enforcement. In fact, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, has minced no words in expressing his displeasure with such congregations.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police [File: September 22nd, 2020]
“We still have people who continue to behave recklessly, persons who continue to have social gatherings. May I remind people that the quarantine regulations clearly state that no person shall host any party of which they are inviting anybody from outside the household where the party is being conducted, which means that if you want to have a party at home you can have a party at home, but if da you one live home, that party must be only you one. You one will party.”
On Saturday night, a property on Faber’s Road was stormed by a team of officers who descended on the location in one fell swoop. Their objective was to break up a sizeable crowd inside this yard where several games of chance, including cards and dominoes, were being played. The matriarch, an eighty-six-year-old, told News Five today that her children and grandchildren came over as they usually do and were socializing at the back when six vehicles emerged on the scene. The armed officers wasted no time firing live rounds to disperse the crowd.
Chester Williams
“Some people are of the view that you can have a party and invite up to ten, that is not so. Further down in the regulations, I think it is regulation ten, it says that there shall be no social event or activity. So, I still can’t understand why it is that every day the police have to be called to activities where persons are having parties. To some extent I am upset with the police too because when the police go they warn and send home people.”
In this case, those persons were not warned. Instead, they were all taken by surprise when a drove of policemen showed up where they were gathered.
Chester Williams
“We need to arrest some people so that they get the message that we are serious. If we continue to be like ambulance, nobody is going to take us seriously. Nobody is going to take these regulations seriously and everybody will continue to behave recklessly and then they will put us all at risk again.”
According to several of the occupants at 29 Faber’s Road, they were not having a party. The group, nonetheless, comes together to socialize on a daily basis, a majority of whom are legitimately members of the same family, their grandmother having had thirteen children who went on to have multiple children of their own. The fact that the officers opened fire doesn’t sit well with the family since a number of minors were also in the yard at the time of the raid.
Chester Williams
“The police will be cracking down on those persons who have the propensity of hosting private parties at their home inviting persons from outside their household. Once you are caught you will be arrested and you might even end up in quarantine at Baldy Beacon, so try stay away from that.”
News Five understands that at least two persons were arrested on Saturday night but we have not been able to ascertain whether any charges were brought against them. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
