Three weeks ago, 30 year old Dwayne Almendarez was shot by a customs officer - and he died a few days later. Alemndarez got into a dispute with a joint law enforcement team at a contraband checkpoint in Yo Creek village. As we've been reporting, those encounters when law enforcement officers search busses with contraband have been showing increasing signs of volatility - and this one ended up with a man dead.Â
And, tonight, in what may be a first, the customs officer is being charged for causing Dwayne Almendarez’s death. Â
39 year old Rudolph Williams, a Customs Officer of Orange Walk town was today arrested and charged for Manslaughter and was arraigned in the Orange Walk Magistrate’s Court. He was offered and met bail of $5,000 dollars. His case is adjourned to next month. Â
That manslaughter charge suggests that the DPP concluded that while he did not intend to kill Alemnadarez he did so through an act of negligence, and that it was not a justifiable use of lethal force. Reports say that Almendarez allegedly physically assaulted one of the custom officers, who reportedly fired a warning shot in the air. Almendarez allegedly did not relent, and the officer fearing for his life fired the shots which wounded Almendarez. He was shot three times, once to the thigh, one to the left chest and one to the abdomen. He succumbed to his injuries at the KHMH four days later.
