Cop injured in shootout … arrest made in similar case

For the second time this week, police are reporting that officers have been fired upon by armed men. According to authorities, the latest incident took place early this morning at the mile four checkpoint on the Western Highway. Cops manning the station say around two-thirty today a two door gold car coming from Belize City slowed down at the booth but instead of producing a license, the person sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle put a handgun out the window and started shooting. The officers responded with their own weapons and when the dust settled one of the constables had been grazed on an abdomen by a bullet. The shooters disappeared into the dark heading towards Hattieville. Crime Scene Investigators have since recovered seven expended nine millimetre shells but up to news time tonight no suspects had been detained in connection to the incident. As for the wounded cop, he was treated for his injury and released.

Meanwhile, Cayo police believe they have the triggerman who shot and wounded three police officers in August. Twenty-seven year old Santa Elena resident Anthony Roches has been charged with two counts each of Attempted Murder and Use of Deadly Means of Harm. On August fourth, two police officers and a Scenes of Crime Technician were dispatched to Perez Street to collect evidence following the murder of seventeen-year old Marvin Echeverria but shortly after arriving they came under fire. Initial investigations reveal that Echeverria’s murder was the result of a long standing dispute between his family and the Galindo’s, another family living the area, and because the officers were in plain clothes, the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.