Our headline last night was about a cop shot by his fellow officers in Orange Walk.
We later learned from the Commissioner that the officer, who has since been identified as Police Constable Wayne Dawson, fled the scene of an accident in Corozal. Police additionally allege that he ran a checkpoint set up to intercept him and that when they finally caught up to him, he pulled out a weapon and fired at them.
He's currently hospitalized with a collapsed lung due to a bullet fired by one of the pursuing officers. But, very late last night, his wife went live on Facebook so that he could refute the official, police version of events.
Daniel Ortiz has his account:
The footage shows the Jac pickup driven by Constable Wayne Dawson with two bullett holes through the window.
Knowing that a narrative is already forming that he behaved in a lawless and criminal manner yesterday, the man behind the wheel with the assistance of his wife, chose to comment publicly on Facebook from his hospital bed.
Constable Wayne Dawson - Shot by Police
"This is my side of the story before I can't say it again."
Due to a collapsed lung, he had difficulty speaking for long periods, and his breathing was audibly ragged and short, but Dawson painstakingly defended his actions before, during, and after he got shot.
Constable Wayne Dawson - Shot by Police
"I was hit from behind by a vehicle. Over a hundred yards away, the person just accelerate into the back of me. I had enough time to turn in, and this person just sped up and hit me."
He insists, which his opinion, and currently not a proven statement of fact, that the accident was some play at financial gain, a 'quick come up', so to speak.
Constable Wayne Dawson
"And to make matters worse, the corporal who was dealing with the case, looked he knew the person. I don't know what kind of hustle they wanted to do, but he and the lady ganged up on me and told me that it was my fault, and I must just pay because I have a new vehicle. My insurance could pay, and I was telling them that he did not even do a proper investigation yet. He just came under the pretext that I am at fault."
The official, police version of events is that he refused to come out of his vehicle and that while an on-duty officer was processing the accident scene, Dawson drove off. He said that he left because he disagreed with the way this matter was being handled.
Constable Wayne Dawson
"I felt like I was getting railroaded like they had some sort of plan going on. So, I left the area. So, I head to Belize City."
In the outskirts of Orange Walk, a police mobile starting approaching me with lights on, but I preferred to stop within town limits because I didn't know what their plan was to do with me out there.
The cops say that Dawson, who was being treated like any other person who fled the scene of an accident, drove past a vehicle checkpoint set up to intercept him. They say that they chased after him and that he allegedly fired, "several gunshots" at the pursuing officers.
Dawson's version of the event differs drastically from that account. He said that the officers panicked when he tried to declare that he had a gun on him.
Constable Wayne Dawson
"When the vehicle finally came to a stop in the town, in Orange Walk Town, I realized I had a firearm on me. I was about to declare it when one of the police shouted, 'Gun!'. He ran backward, and they started opening fire on me. They shot their own. When the bullet hit me in my back, my finger pressed the trigger in the vehicle, and my gun went off. The shots kept coming from the back, so I threw down the gun because I knew they would try to say that I shot at them. The only shot that fired off in my vehicle went into the floor. No gun was on the floor, so how will they say I shot at them. We are trained better than this. I know I am trained better than this. We don't just shoot at people, not knowing what's happening first. They just shot up my vehicle. They dragged me on my face to the pavement. I am a police officer too. If they could do that to me, what wouldn't they do with the public?"
"Why did this have to happen to me? I got attacked like this for no reason, and now, they are trying to cover up everything by saying that I shoot at them? Show me the evidence of that. Only one time my gun went off."
"I am a police officer. I work in Belize City, and I was just trying to get back to Belize City because I thought I would be safer there. But, they gunned me down before I could reach."
