At the end of April last year, Irving Thimbriel, a pastor and senior public officer, made the news. That's when he and a group of like-minded citizens launched a protest in Belmopan to call out the police department for what he believed was a police cover-up that would deny his family justice.
On May 1st, 2016, Thimbriel lost his son, 25-year-old Akeem Thimbriel, and nephew, 23-year-old Shawn Lopez, to gun violence. Both were shot and killed near Thimbriel's home in the village.
In the years that followed, Pastor Thimbriel and his family have been closely watching the police investigation into the double murder of their loved ones, and today, they remain dissatisfied. That's because forensics testing confirmed that a police officer's weapon fired one of the shots that injured Akeem Thimbriel on the night of the murder. In addition, the family says that a cell phone belonging to this same police officer - who was once a suspect - was found on the scene.
The family insists that these are legitimate leads that the investigators are not meaningfully pursuing to get to the bottom of this crime. Today in Camalote, Pastor Thimbriel spoke to Daniel Ortiz. Here are his comments of frustration:
Pastor Thimbriel also had a few words to share with the general public about remaining silent when police, who should be upholders of the law, are the suspects in terrible crimes like this one. He said that these types of issues should be everyone's concern and not just the victims who are suffering:
