He was a long serving policeman who had reached the rank of Assistant Superintendent and up until last week commanded the Corozal formation, but tonight ASP Michael Gutierrez is an ex-cop retired in the public interest.
Gutierrez was retired last week Friday after a meeting of the Public service Commission which acted on the recommendation of the Commissioner of Police. COMPOL Carmen Zetina today confirmed that Gutierrez was retired because a vehicle kept as an exhibit went missing from the Corozal station.
But that's only half the story, Zetina explained to us that Gutierrez is believed to have been using the vehicle as has personal ride, and it disappeared during or near that time. Zetina says that he is not even sure it was stolen, it may have been sold by someone, but he does know it's not at the police station where it belongs. And not only is it missing under dubious circumstances, Zetina says the vehicle was singled out by the U.S. authorities as a car stolen from the United States, and they requested that it be impounded. No one at the embassy could be reached for comment.