The four month long manhunt for the notorious Gregory Casildo ended yesterday in Spanish Lookout. That’s where the accused killer was killed by police. He was shot four times by a special unit, but they say he fired first. As we told you last night, Casildo was the main suspect in two murders in Placencia and a key player in a string of armed robberies in the Cayo area. He was released from prison in February and according to police he returned to his old ways the minute he stepped out of prison. Here’s the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Greg Casildo’s trail of terror began in Placencia on February 14th. That is when and this is where police say he gunned down 25-year-old Shannon “Shaggy”
Henderson on the night of February 14th. Shaggy’s neighbor heard the blood curdling gunshots.
[February 14th 2007]
Friend of Shaggy,
“I was upstairs when I heard the two shots but I thought it was pop-shots and that is why I didn’t come out the first time. But when I looked through the window I saw two guys running but then it came to my mind and I thought about my friend. When I came downstairs I started to knock on the door and when I saw the man on the ground, and the girl told me to do something. I ran to the station and only the sergeant was there. When I came back, he was dead already.”
Police say Casildo struck again in Placencia less than a month later – on March 14th –killing a businessman.
Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police
[March 14th, 2008] “When a dark skinned individual came in and asked for a fry chicken. He told the individual that he does not have fry chicken but he can sell him a soft drink and when he bent over in the freezer it seems like the person accosted him and shot him twice in the back. He had his firearm, it appeared that he was making an effort to turn around but regrettably he could not and he was shot in the back and other places on his body. Since then the investigation has concluded or not concluded but the investigation has revealed so far that the person identified is the same Gregory Casildo who was wanted for the previous.”
He then headed west.
Crispin Jeffries, Assistant Commissioner of Police
“During the last two months, much has been heard of Gregory Casildo in the Cayo District, particularly in the Spanish Lookout, Santa Elena and Esperanza Village area of that district. Numerous efforts have been made to find and capture this person. Throughout the period, wanted posters were issued. I can specifically point you to the days of the National Agriculture and Trade Show when from the police booth and at the Agriculture Show Grounds, members of the Police Youth
Corps were asked to distribute. That specific village and those village in the La Grazia area and other villages, most of the shops and business places have posters in Spanish and English posted there.”
But none of that worked - Casildo was on the loose and police say he tortured Martin Wall and his young sons inside their Spanish Lookout home on July 19th.
[July 21st, 2008]
Martin Wall, Tortured
“He got a knife and a big fork and he then came back and said he would start cutting my fingers until I give him money. I told him we don’t have no more again and again, that is all I have. I asked what more could we give you and why would I risk my life for money.”
But after 4 months on the run – Greg Casildo ran out of places to run on Thursday morning.
Crispin Jeffries, Assistant Commissioner of Police
“Police came across a car that was stationery on a road, one of the side roads leading between Yalbac and Spanish Lookout and they observed inside that car, two male persons. The team approached the car and later on one of
the occupants was spoken to and at the same time the second attempted to alight the vehicle. That second occupant was recognised as Gregory Casildo who appeared out of the vehicle with a handgun and fired shots at the police. The police returned fire and Gregory Casildo was fatally injured. He later died or was presumed dead.
For police Greg Casildo was dangerous as they came and for Jeffries it is a happy ending.
Crispin Jeffries,
“Gregory Casildo has a criminal history and one of violence and one of dishonesty. The police had on numerous occasions encountered and dealt with Gregory Casildo. It is good intelligence work and good community support that has resulted in this break through in this long ongoing manhunt for this person who we believe has eluded the police for so long.”
But it is déjà vu for Elisa Casildo. Next month makes 4 years - since her brother Mark T-Dog Stuart was
fatally shot by prison guards. Yesterday it was another brother.
Elisa Casildo, Greg’s Brother
“Well my brother came out one week and he went to Placencia because we wanted him to keep out of trouble so my mom said for him to go down there with my little sister and so that is what we did because it is like for every little thing happen they put on him and that is what the police do because they don’t like us, especially not my brothers because they killed one of them in jail and then he saw when they killed him so that is what they were trying to do, lock him down so he didn’t say anything. They said my brother is bad and my brother is not that type of person. He was never that type of person and he wouldn’t kill nobody.”
But as they say - if you live by the gun – you die by it – and that’s the fate befell these two brothers. Reporting for 7NEWS, Keith Swift.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Crispin Jeffries says the shooting was justified but an internal investigation will still be conducted. Mark T-Dog Stuart’s shooting at the Hattieville Prison in August 2003 was ruled justifiable.
His family though is growing suspicious about Greg Casildo’s shooting death because police have refused to release the body to the family. His two sisters told us late this evening that after travelling to morgues in San Ignacio, Belmopan, and Belize City – they have still not been able to even see the body. The family was hoping to bury Greg Casildo on Sunday along with his 64 year old father who died a week ago.
Our records show that Casildo was listed as a suspect in a number of high profile and violent crimes in the mid 90’s.
