Just as the Police Department was mourning Cantun's death, another officer lost his life on Saturday night but Corporal Benedicto Coy was killed. It was Christmas Eve, and Corporal Coy and Police Constable Anibal Castellanos both off duty and in civilian clothing, got involved in a misunderstanding with a man after a minor traffic mishap. Alfonso Noble found out what happened next.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Sometime around 6:45 on Saturday night Corporal Benedicto Coy and Police Constable Anibal Castellanos were in a vehicle attempting to park on King Street when they got into a disagreement with a man who was on bicycle.
ASP Chester Williams,
"Corporal Coy and PC Castellanos were both in the area of Lion King, which is corner of King and Amara Avenue, when they had a short altercation with a male person who has been identified as Gregory Martinez. The altercation resulted in Martinez inflicting a fatal stab wound to the right side of Corporal Coy's chest while PC Castellanos got a stab wound to the right side of the rib cage. He was hospitalized but has since been released from the hospital and his condition is improving. From what we can get from PC Castellanos, it does appear that they were going inside the bar but they were going in the area to look for someone when they had this confrontation with this individual. They were not inside the bar, they were just parking their vehicle on the roadside when the incident occurred. From what the investigation is revealing is that basically after they parked the vehicle this person rode up into the back of the vehicle that they were in and as a result of that they told him about it and that is seemed to tripped him off and caused the fatal injury to one officer and the other officer being injured."
The attack on the policemen sent officers in Belize City into a frenzied search to apprehend the man suspected of the stabbings. Family members of the only suspect Gregory Martinez, were today in front of the Magistrate's Court as he was brought in for arraignment. The sight of their relative with both eyes black and blue, obvious signs of violence, got them riled up.
Family Member #1,
"This is chance. Look at how the boy is bust up. Look how he is bust up. If you apprehend somebody and want to take somebody…he wasn't running, he was at home in the bed with the baby. You don't have to beat him. Every police officer who came on duty beat, slapped, and kicked him. The police came and they burst up his daddy face with a gun because he had the baby in the bed with him with daughter. When they came they just rushed in there and Chester took the gun and put it to his head. Paloma put the gun and put it to his head with the baby in his hand and started to tell him, 'you are the murderer,' while the baby was crying. They took my daughter dragged her out of the room and they grabbed the baby and threw him to her. He was asking, 'why unu wah me' and 'whe unu wah me fa.' 'Why unu di beat me up so fa?' The neighbors can tell you how bad they beat him up. The police started to beat him up from there, and when we went by the police station to find out what was the situation they were beating him, every police who came on duty beat him. They told him if the policeman died they would beat him more. I told Paloma, 'have some conscience and heart, how you feel to know you are human and you are beating somebody like that when he was been proven guilty and that boy wasn't around where they say it happened?' Everyday they beat him. Look at the condition how he is bust up bad, look how he is bust up. I went to see the Ombudsman two times and I said all we want is for them not to beat him up. If they want to apprehend him, fine but don't beat him. From Saturday they haven't taken that boy to doctor up until now and look at his condition and how he looks so you know nobody is working, nobody is working."
Family Member #2,
"Up to now they haven't taken the man to hospital and they are still beating the man. So I don't know whom you could see now because that is police brutality. They don't even know if he is the correct man and they are beating him; that is what bugs me out. When you go there and tell them about it they are chasing you like dog. They don't even want you to see them. I took a tennis for his foot and they don't even want him to put that on. What kind of law do we have in Belize?"
Family Member #3,
"I request that the Attorney General to call Minister Ralph Fonseca so that Saturday night they could have stopped beating my little brother and when I spoke to him he told me he had spoken to the Minister and they would have stopped the police from beating my little brother. And what bothers me
most is that I work with the police department so that we can stop crime and if the police department does things like this, it doesn't show proper work relationship with the public, beating people. You cannot beat this person because he is not guilty. I agree it is my brother, he did a crime, but if someone does a crime, when you find him guilty then he supposed to pay the penalty. Everybody out here can see the condition of my littler brother how he is well beat up and at this moment the police did not even take him to the hospital."
The request to have Martinez see a doctor was granted this very morning as he was immediately brought down from the court on the magistrate's instruction to take him to a doctor. But even though he saw a doctor the family says he should not even be there and that their hunt for the killer has been a bit too heavy-handed.
Family Member #1,
"They bashed into my house and took a green bicycle, that boy doesn't own a green bike. They bashed into the room and took a blue hat, what happened to the blue hat, who is the blue hat for. You hear the talking that it is a red hat, you hear he had this, you hear he had on that---nothing goes so. They took the green bicycle for my brother which he just set up the same morning and they bashed into the yard because people told them it is a green bicycle and so they have the green bicycle as evidence."
Family Member #4,
"The house door was stomped open, they damaged the lock. The room doors are damaged. A next lady who lived behind the house, her properties are missing from behind the backroom, the room doors are damaged. On my locker top I had a set of knife with six knives in there and when I went home I only found three knives on the locker top and three missing. They took the knives from there because six were there. When I asked them about it he said he doesn't know about any knife and only they went there and stomped open the house door. So I need them to put back my knife and do something about it because I positive, will see to it, that they go down one by one. I noh business."
Coy was laid to rest at his home in the Toledo District today. Meanwhile 27-year-old Gregory Martinez who was charged with murder, grievous harm and use of deadly means of harm was remanded to prison until January 27th of next year.
