When San Pedro bar owner Elvis Polanco was killed on November 19 in the island town, police moved quickly to detain two security guards who worked at his jade par. One of them was a cop on interdiction, the other an ex cop. The cop was charged for possession of an unlicensed firearm, but since then no other charges have followed. Police say they can't even find the licensed weapon that the police officer Winfield Mortis had issued to him.
So, after they charged Mortis for an unlicensed weapon allegedly found in his house, they released him and the other suspect.
Today, the Commissioner said they are determined to bring more charges:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I have just directed this morning that we dispatched a team of major crime to San Pedro to probe more into that matter. We believe that it is solvable and we'll do our best to solve it. In addition to that we have submitted to the national forensic service the firearm that was found in the home of the police PC Mortis along with the expended shells that were found at the scene to the national forensic service again for ballistic testing. One of the
requirements that we have had is that when you come to licensed the gun for the first time, we have you discharge the gun and we keep the expended shell for our database. We have also located the expended shells from Mr. Mortis' licensed weapon. So even though he has not cooperated in terms of handing in his licensed weapon or telling us where it is, we have the expended shells from his weapon and so those expended shells was also sent to the national forensic service and they will compare it to see if the same gun that fired those shells that we had from his licensed gun is the same gun that fired the shells that were found at the scene. So we are hoping that we will be able to get a breakthrough once the ballistic test returned. We have also submitted the clothing that was taken from the other police officer and that went to the forensic lab for DNA testing. If it can be proven that the blood found on his clothing belong to either the wife or the deceased, then again that will help us to be able to build a circumstantial case on the other police man."
"We are trying to build public trust and confidence in the work of the police and when we have things like this occurring it's a setback to what we are trying to achieve. Notwithstanding that though, I would hope that the public would be comforted to know that we are doing our best to solve it (1) and (2) the officer was not on actual duty in that he was on interdiction which would indicate that we have already identified him as a bad seed. Sometimes I wish that we could just dismiss these type of people, but the law requires that we must go through a process and we have to follow the law and that's what we are doing."
Jules Vasquez
"Should he ever wear a police uniform again?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I don't think he should."
