Police shoot suspect in leg during big weed bust

Did a police officer overreact or did he genuinely feel threatened when he shot a suspect in the leg? That is the question authorities are trying to answer in an investigation ordered by Police Commissioner Gerald Westby. The incident unfolded this morning around twelve-fifteen in a dimly lit area of Benque Viejo del Carmen. Authorities report that a police mobile patrol intercepted a suspicious heavily tinted Toyota Camry. When it came to a stop, the driver, identified as thirty year old Randy Petillo of Dangriga, exited the vehicle, but when his passenger, twenty-nine year old Guatemalan Minerva Cajbon was asked to come out of the car, she refused.

Authorities say after they again ordered Cajbon to get out of the car with her hands up, she kicked open the door with her foot, but refused to exit. That is when police say the officer saw the woman holding in her hand what resembled a shotgun and he responded by pulling out his service revolver and firing a shot. The bullet caught Cajbon in her upper right leg and she was taken to the San Ignacio Hospital where she remains under guard in a stable condition.

When police conducted a search of the vehicle they discovered that the object the woman was holding was no gun but a locking device used to secure the steering wheel. The police also found that their initial instincts were correct as a search of the car yielded eighty pounds of marijuana. It is expected that both Petillo and Cajbon will be charged for drug trafficking.