Last week we brought you the story of Rondane Swazo, a call centre agent who was shot to the chest while allegedly struggling with a police officer for his weapon.
It's an accusation that his family and his girlfriend don't believe, telling 7news last week that Swaso had just left the house to buy a gacho when they heard gunshots.
But if you hear the cops tell it, Swaso was the target in a sting operation to recover stolen goods. Today the Commissioner called the shooting unfortunate but maintained that Swaso accosted an officer.
Chester Williams, Commissioner Of Police
"In respect to the matter of the shooting involving Mr Swaso in Belize City last week from what I have been briefed is that there was a report of some stolen item that was being advertised for sale on social media. The owner of the item saw the item and recognized it as his and based on that made some arrangements to purchase the item upon going to do so he solicited the assistance of police officers to be in the area and they went somewhere along the
East Canal area where they met the individual who had the stolen item with him. The police moved to arrest the young man who had the item and upon doing so he had a brief struggle with the police and he managed to escape. This led to pursuit within Belize City and that pursuit led them to an abandoned lot on Euphrates avenue near the basketball court. At this time it was already in the dark of night and so one of the officers who did the pursuit was in the back of the yard and made a call to 911 to seek assistance. Upon doing so the young man Swaso came from an area and accosted the police. A struggle ensued for the officers weapon during which the officer was able to fire one shot which caught Swaso in the right chest region. The bullet exited the back. He was taken to the KHMH hospital where he is currently admitted in stable condition."
"One can't expect that the officer would have waited for the young man to take away his gun before doing something because I saw some of the comments on social media and it would appear to me that some people would have rather see the young man take the police gun as opposed to the police handling it the way he did. When we do have these shootings it is always unfortunate but at the end of the day police officers are out there to do a duty and in so doing they also have a right to protect themselves and to protect the public."
And despite his defence of the officer, the COMPOL says that the Professional Standards Branch is looking into whether that officer acted in accordance with the department's pursuit policy.
