Last night’s three murders brought the week’s body count in the city to 6. So that’s six murders in five days – with “0” arrests. In fact the only man, who will certainly get charged is the one we just told you about, Robert Taylor, who police found in the hospital. That means that there are five killers on the loose tonight on the streets of the city. At a press conference this afternoon Commander of Eastern Division – Senior Superintendent David Henderson, and ASP Julio Valdez- the head of CIB at Eastern Division say police are investigating and have detained suspects.
ASP Julio Valdez, CIB
“For both shootings we have a person in custody still pending investigations. Both matters are under intense investigation at this time as we speak. At this time we are unable to say whether we have any connection between the two murders, Lewis and Westby.”
Sr. Supt. David Henderson, Commander – Eastern Division
“The police are doing investigations and I don’t think that we need to go into the details of those information gathered because at the
end of the day those matters will be going before the court and the whole case will be prejudiced.
In the past Belize City used to do a number of arrests and at the end of the day the convictions, what you have, and now every incident where we make arrests, we will make sure we have the necessary evidence.”
Keith Swift,
But what do you say to city residents because at least two killers are on the loose tonight?
Sr. Supt. David Henderson,
“Well we will be out there, we will do whatsoever enforcement we need to do and we will investigate and we will bring whosever we need to bring to justice.”
Henderson is under the most pressure to control the heat on the streets. He says he’s only been on the job on the week and they are doing their best. So what is their plan? Well he repeated what he said on Monday - he’s been meeting with the community and plans to put more officers on the street. But then he turned and pointed the finger at the media. Here’s why he says the news is making the crime situation worse.
Sr. Supt. David Henderson,
“When these incidents occur people are being interviewed on their sick beds in the hospital, witnesses are being exposed, and that cause some retaliation and in fact the public is very concerned over it and I am concerned about it because I believe that when we do those things we create major problems. Although I believe that as Belizeans we need to be responsible, we need to really be a bit concerned of the situation and we need to do everything to address the situation. From a security point of view the police will be doing everything possible but again the media I believe needs to be a bit responsible in the way we really put over certain things.”
