Teen wanted for shooting cop is arrested
Ernesto Bernardez
The countrywide manhunt for Ernesto Bernardez, a teenager accused of shooting police constable John Valerio Sr. on Caye Caulker on April second, is finally over following an all-points bulletin for his arrest. On Sunday, Bernardez’s mother turned him over to Belize City police at the Eastern Division after he was on the lam for almost two weeks. Today, the minor was arraigned in the Belize Family Court where he was read numerous charges, including two counts of attempted murder upon police constables John Valerio and Ian Wagner. He was additionally charged with two counts of use of deadly means of harm upon both officers, as well as a single count of wounding upon Wagner, and theft of firearms. On April second, shortly after five o’clock PC Valerio responded to an alert that an individual matching the description of a suspect who stole a firearm from Wagner was seen near the Caye Caulker Airstrip. Upon responding to the call, Valerio approached Bernardez where a search of his person was conducted. The teenager somehow managed to relieve the officer of his service revolver and fired a single shot grazing his head. Bernardez immediately fled the scene and remained at large until Sunday. In court this morning he was read all charges in the presence of his mother before being escorted to the Wagner’s Facility located at the Belize Central Prison. He is due back in court on June sixth.
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. I think a person old enough to kill is old enough to hang — he’s lucky the officers survived, but he should be locked in prison for a few decades.
The streets of Belize will be a little safer if he is not on them.
Arrest the mother too. She was hiding him. I know is her son but he is also a criminal and have to pay for what he did.
In two separate incidents, this minor was able to steal a police constable’s personal firearm???
How is the investigation going of the BDF armory theft of fully automatic weapons??
Why should criminals buy illegal weapons, when they can just take them from the government?
i was on a boat from san pedro the weekend before he did his crimes and this kid was staring me down hard as he sat across from me. (I easily get mistaken for police or BDF) I did not think anything of it but now it has made me more alert and aware of my surroundings whenever I am about…
the gangs want their rights -to take away ours, something drastic needs to get done about them ASAP
How can you condemn the mother when she turned him in the same day he came home for help.Don’t be too quick to judge. How many of us can turn in our own child not knowing what his future holds?
its time to stop blaming each other. let get 2gether and stand up against what is happening in our beautiful Belize.
I agree with what cry4help said; come on dont be judging anyone or saying anything you dont knw. His mother handed in him the day he came home; afraid she handed her son in and having the courage many mothers dont have. People can say he deserves this and that, but no one really knows what really happened only that young man and thepolice. In these times some of the polices are as bad as any criminal. what is the matter, cant we defend ourselves????? Yes the polices are said to be enforcers of the law, but how could they enforce it while breaking it as well??? Everyone deserve a second chance, just like how God gave us a second chance by sending is ONLY son to die for our sins. Now come on people dont judge nor say things, while you dont even knw the full story.