Last night 34 year old Mike Menjivar, his wife 29 year old Iliana Chacon and their babysitter 41 year old Rumilda Perez spent their first night at the Kolbe Central Prison.
As we've reported, their home on the outskirts of Belmopan was riddled with gunfire when police raided it before dawn on Friday.
Police said they were returning fire; today Mike Menjivar spoke to us from prison where he told us he thought it was a ruthless home invasion - here's that interview:
Miguel Menjivar - From Jail
"What I thought was happening was that they were a group of killers. It didn't look like a robbery happening that morning. If you hear gunshots around your house, through your doors, windows, it looked as though they were trying to kill my entire family and myself. First of all, they didn't identify themselves, because I was asleep when they came to my house. When the jumped my fence, why they parked the truck close to my fence, jumped my fence, killed my dogs, and do everything included dropping my door, I was still asleep."
Jules Vasquez
"They said that you opened fire on them, and that's why they responded with what they call suppressing fire. Did you open fire on them?"
Miguel Menjivar
"We didn't have a close idea - the slightest idea - of who was trying to break into our house. The main door of my house was knocked down with a sledge hammer. They were beating it in to knock the door. Imagine that sounded. I was desperate; my wife was crying on the phone. All I did, I shot through the door, to keep this group of people shooting around my windows to keep them outside. All of them were shouting, 'Police! Police! Police!' We get in touch with the Station again, through my wife on the phone. My wife told her, 'Lady, they're saying that they are police.' the lady told us, 'Do not open door, please ask them who they are because none of my police is there right now. Most of the police are here, only the officers that I sent there, and I know they are. Please ask them who they are.' We asked them for their names. They put a lot of pressure on the door, and we ran to the rest rooms. They knock off the door of my room, and we were now in the rest room with the door locked up. They continued to shout, 'Police!' The lady begged us not to open the door, until the police get there. I couldn't do any better, they kept on shooting around the house and inside, so I have my baby and my wife with me. I didn't want them to knock off the rest room door, shoot at me, and kill my wife and my daughter. So I opened the door; they kept on saying that they were police, so I gave them my gun. I put myself on the floor to get arrested. They put the hand cuff on me, broke my jaw, kicked my head, my shoulders: they really abused me a lot. It was really scary what they did to me."
Iliana Chacon - From Jail
"I was crying on the phone; the lady answered and I told her, 'Please, send somebody because somebody is trying to get into our house. They're gonna kill us.' Then she said that she was going to send somebody right now. Then we were in the room, and I made 4 phone calls. By the fourth phone calls, these people were inside the house already, but before that we could hear shooting all over the house. They said that they were with the station. I told the lady that the said that they were with the station, and I asked about what we should do. She told us not to open the door, and to ask for names. I told Mike to ask for names, but they didn't want to give any names. They just said that they are police. They didn't say anything about search warrants or anything. Until now, we are still waiting for that search warrant, and we haven't seen one yet. During all that shooting, I was sure that my kids - my boys - and my babysitter were dead by then. Now I was trying to protect my little girl; she has breathing problems and she was freaking out by then. So instead of freaking out, I was trying to keep her calm so that she doesn't pass out. I was always trying to keep myself strong, trying to protect her. I was telling her to pray because they were gonna kill us. I always tried to keep strong for her. In this situation, it was very hard for me. I'm 3 months pregnant; it's very hard and I can't explain it. This was too much."
Jules Vasquez
"It's amazing that no one was seriously hurt or even killed."
Miguel Menjivar
"When they shot out the windows, we ran to the rooms, wake up my kids, and put them low on the floor. If we didn't do that, my two kids would be dead by now. What kind of suspicions they have on me? If the police work 10 hours, I work 16 to 18 hours every day of the week. I run a very good and legal business. They did it like I'm a criminal, or a professional drug dealer, worse than that. Even if I'm a criminal or a drug dealer, in no part of the world a police force have the right to shoot after a person they are looking for chasing if that person has people around them. And I was among my family, and they shot up around my house without caring who they might kill. They shot as if to finish my family, and this will be a lawsuit, big time."
The GSU has maintained that it only used suppressing fire; that they properly identified themselves and tht they were acting on information received.
Menjivar, his wife and his babysitter remain on remand. Their attorney will file an application for a waiver so that they can apply directly to the Supreme Court for bail.
