It's been a little less than 2 weeks since Henry Jemmott was killed in what's been called an accidental shooting on San Pedro. Since then, the mystery of what actually happened on that dark and deserted pier has been pondered on and presided over by every news outlet on either side of the Atlantic.
But behind the intrigue, the gear of the camera lens, and the headlines that have come to dominate Belize's most infamous manslaughter case, is a family that's experienced an unimaginable loss, a community that's mourning a beloved Cop, and a department grieving a respected senior officer. All that loss, came together on Saturday in Dangriga. Cherisse Halsall has more:...
It's been two weeks full of headlines featuring Jasmine Hartin the glamorous socialite turned femme fatale. But as the country and perhaps the world knows by now, when all was said and done, Hartin got out $30,000.00 bail. And fled to San Ignacio where she has to report daily to the police station.
But over the weekend, attention finally started to shift away from Hartin, focusing instead on the sendoff for her alleged victim, Henry Jemmott. That farewell started with a wake, one that in culture capital style might have gone Til da Mawning.
But it was so uninhibited that it had to be shut down due to Covid regulations via word from an out-of-country Commissioner of Police.
Although those who were there say it was really the rain that shut it down.
That mood changed from celebratory to somber when they reconvened by 10:00 the next morning at Dangriga's Sacred Heart Church.
But even grief was lightened with elements of joy, starting off with the words of Jemmott's childhood friend Sean Kuylen.
Sean Kuylen, Jemmott's childhood friend
"Where we stand right here if you look behind me it's the Caribbean sea, behind you to my right is the church, Sacred Heart. I met Henry Jemmott right here in Sacred Heart Church, I have, and I don't know if I should say this on camera but that coconut tree was where Henry Jemmott lost his manhood. These are the things that I know only and only he and I knew those things. Henry Jemmott lived right behind this school so he used to run home come back, and yes we grew up as childhood friends and that's where I ingrained the Garifuna in me the culture in me."
And Jemmott was celebrated not just by those closest to him, but, by so many more - the big man with the easy ways - had touched the lives of so many that funeral goers came from every walk of life, even these ghost riders from the west.
Pete Davis, Ghostrider
"I think all of us knew him from different times and different places and he was widely respected, we do support law enforcement and we thought we should support him in his funeral."
And outside the funeral we caught up with Fransico Arceo or "Pawny," the man who served as Jemmott's fishing captain on the last day of his life, we last spoke to him in the moments before Hartin was transferred from San Pedro to the Kolbe Foundation. But on Sunday he offered a pledge to Jemmott's family.
Fransico Arceo "Pawny", Family friend
"I will stand close to the family and openly say that I will help them with whatever comes, whatever comes."
"It's very heartbreaking but you know I am the one that always says that we in Belize City, we like that saying that what he got a top attorney and this and that happen and they are out on bail or whatever, but up there that's the one that doesn't charge and that's the biggest attorney, you don't escape. Still, it's not easy, i'm very heartbroken, I'm still broken up, I'm shaking."
As this big sister cradled her big baby brother for the last time, the raw, visceral sadness was thick in the air
Counterbalanced, though, by the rigid formality of the police protocols; the official acknowledgement that a cop of high standing had been killed
A man who had given his adult life to the Department - which he had ambitions to one day lead.
All those dreams, buried now, when the only male among 23 sisters, a man who was called "King", was finally laid to rest.
Sean Kuylen, Jemmott's childhood friend
"He didn't have 23 children but he had all girls 5, 4 girls one son just as faith would have it and all the middle names of these children are from his sisters and he had one son, the last one."
"Henry Jemmott the 3rd, so I call the man the Prince because there will only be one king but again the priest went and he blessed the child and he promoted him from Prince to King so he has big shoes to fil."
