On Monday's newscast, we told you about the death of 38-year-old Gregory Bowen in police custody. He's the Belize City man who hung himself while he was being detained at the Queen Street Police Station over the News Year's Holiday weekend.
In a press briefing on Monday, Police Commissioner Chester Williams said that as far as he was aware, Bowen wasn't known to be a mental patient. Bowen's family strongly disputes that, and they have retained an attorney to bring pressure on the police department for what they believe was negligence.
We'll get to that interview but first, for context, we re-air a portion of Monday's interview with the ComPol in which he was discussing the Bowen case:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"We do have our cell block policies that speak to the fact that officers must make hourly checks on the prisoners. In situations where the prisoner is under the influence or demonstrates the potential for harming him or herself then checks must be made every half an hour. In this case, Mr. Bowen was not drunk and was not one who displayed signs of wanting to injure himself and others and so the checks were made hourly. We have checked the diary at the station and it shows that the officers did make the hourly checks at the cell blocks. It would appear that it was after the 2 am check was made that he eventually did what he did. Nonetheless, we are going to see what the investigation reveals at the end and then we will brief you more on it."
Reporter
"We hear what you said that he did not display any signs of violence towards himself or to others but what's your perspective on patients with mental challenge and whether or not they should be booked into the cell block or there should be an alternate manner of dealing with them."
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"I don't know if he have mental issues. I have never said that. He is not known to have mental issues."
But, as we told you, Bowen's family is asserting that police were well aware of his struggles with mental illness. This evening, his sister and their attorney granted us an interview to discuss why they will seek a legal fight with the police over Bowen's death. Here's what they told us:
The Bowen family tells us that among the intended defendants, they will sue the Government, the Ministry responsible for Police, and the police department.
