Tonight Tarique James and Kenyon Tilett - the two men accused in last Saturday morning's city shootout involving the Deputy Mayor - are out on bail.
And James is also without a job. As we have been reporting, he is employed by the Leadership Intervention Unit - or at least he was. A release from that body today says, he was quote, "removed from the program upon being arrested and charged."
But the LIU takes issue with the report we ran last night where we showed documentary evidence which clearly suggests James was double dipping: simultaneously getting a check from the City Council and the LIU community cleanup program, whose funds are funneled through City Hall.
Their release says, quote, "(LIU) is appalled at the allegations made in a news item aired by Channel 7 News…The LIU takes this opportunity to clarify these allegations...Tarique James...worked at the Belize City Council in the capacity of Sanitation Coordinator until April 29, 2022….the LIU employed him upon his termination from the Council to assist in the management of the cleaning up of the enormous amount of garbage generated by the different work groups from around the City."
The release then goes on to explain that, quote, "he entered in the middle of our payment cycle and therefore received compensation for April 25 to May 6. This was to have been corrected in the May 20 pay period, but Mr James was removed from the program..." End quote.
So, all that to say that nothing we reported was wrong, the factual documentary evidence points to an overlap between both work periods - so we stand by our report.
