But first here’s what the police are doing to deal with this crime, and to make sure an escalated version of this attack isn’t coming to a neighbourhood near you.
Allan Whylie, Eastern Division Commander
“Last night was a reality check in terms of the fact that it has been used, in my view, for the first time and it is something that we view very seriously.”
And for the Bailar Area of Mayflower Street, it is more than serious; it is a matter of life and death.
Allan Whylie,
“Sometime around 8:40 pm, thereabout, a group of young persons from that neighbourhood were on the street socializing when a male person came on a bicycle and threw a object in their direction which rolled on the street.”
Major David Jones, BDF Bomb Squad
“What happened, after the grenade was thrown, apparently the guys weren’t aware what it was and they felt someone was just throwing stones
on them and the object rolled in front of them and they kicked it and it was immediately, as they kicked it, it functioned – which is why many pellets are inside the legs of one of the fellows and that is the guy that actually passed away because most of the pellets went up from the jaw area into his head. So the pellets are embedded inside his head.”
That grenade is believed to have looked something like this, an M40 design. Police found the lever which triggers the explosive on the street.
Allan Whylie,
“An initial search of the scene by the Scenes of Crime personnel led to the recovery of a lever that we believe may have been part of a hand grenade.”
Major David Jones,
“What the lever does is release the cap, the cap hits a protection cap, that cap sets off a gun powder charge inside the grenade itself which burns between 4 to 6 seconds. After that six seconds has elapsed, it sets off a detonator inside the grenade. Now surrounding that grenade inside are explosives and embedded inside the explosives are small pellets. There are two types of grenades, the defensive or the offensive one. Now the grenade used last night was a defensive grenade. These are the grenades that have the small pellets inside. Now the damage from the grenade is really from the pellets. When that grenade functions, it shoots out those pellets – about 7,000 meters second. Those pellets will be flying hemispherically in all directions. So it is not a weapon that will discriminate – whoever is around will get hit. The lethal radius within those grenades is usually within ten meters. Within ten meters if you’re within the direct path of the blast of that grenade, if you get the worse of it, it is very likely that you will die.”
But how would a grenade like this get into the dangerous Belize City streets? Jones says it’s definitely not from the BDF.
Major David Jones,
“The grenade used in the BDF are quite different. The grenades we
have in the BDF are the offensive types of grenades. These are the ones used for offensive operations in the war time scenarios because they are more lethal than the one used last night.”
Jules Vasquez,
Are you able to say if it was a British type or an American type?
Major David Jones,
“I’ll tell you know, it is not British, it is not American. I have seen this grenade before. It is a European grenade. I am not at the stage of the investigation right now to specify which one of the countries but it could be any one of the countries in Europe that produces it. But definitely the grenade was smuggled into the country; that I can assure you. How? I can only speculate and I don’t want to do that.”
But however it came into Belize – police say they have a possible motive as to why it was used last night.
Allan Whylie,
“We haven’t had any concrete motive in the true sense of it. What we’ve had is some street information in respect to some alleged shooting that had taken place behind St. Martin’s Deporess area. And it is believed that the person who threw the grenade came from that area in retaliation for that shooting. It is a shooting, like I said, that we are not aware of, because no report had been made to us.
We have good information in terms of who that person was. We did a search last night, at a house, on Nargusta Street based on information we had that that person was there. Unfortunately by the time the police got there, that person was not there.”
And now police are preparing for an inevitable retaliation.
Allan Whylie,
“It is reasonable to assume that some retaliation efforts will be made. We are gearing up for possible retaliation. We do know that there is an array of different calibres of illegal firearms out there in the hands of these parties. After this meeting we will be meeting, myself along with some of the operational commanders down here, and then we will be strategizing on the way ahead. When I say that, I mean we will not only be sitting back or observing waiting for something to occur. We will be actively going out there after these persons that we believe may possibly retaliate, as well as the associates of that person who we believe threw that grenade and we will be making all efforts to bring them in. We will search their premises, anything found, we will deal with it and they will spend their time with us and we will try to diffuse this matter.”
But the police accept that to some extend in this kind of war, they are powerless.
Allan Whylie,
“Unfortunately noh care how much preventative, educative, interdictive efforts you make – there will always be someone out there who perhaps does not want to be a part of any program and seeks the opportunity to do a senseless act like what was done last night.”
It was the first murder in the Belize District for the month of May – and represents a sharp spike in what had been a modest downturn in violent crime since mid March.
