Tonight, another teenager, this time a 19-year-old from Orange Walk has been killed at the hands of the police.
It happened on Saturday night when officers pursued two motorcycles that refused to stop. It ended minutes later with another teen dead by police lead.
And tonight four police officers remain detained while the Commissioner of Police Chester Williams has admitted to their use of excessive and unwarranted use of lethal force in this arrest-turned-shooting death.
Cherisse Halsall headed to Orange Walk this morning to speak with the deceased teen's friends and family. We start off tonight with their words on the young man's death.
These candles on the pavement are all that was left this morning to mark the spot where Dyandre Chi fell after he was fatally shot by a police officer in his home town of Orange Walk.
It's a death that came all too suddenly and resulted from a wild chase across over 4 miles of the town that ended in a brutal and unprovoked shooting, according to Dyandre's friend and boss Clyde Villeda.
And this morning when we found him at the scene he recounted what he calls the most terrifying moments of his life.
Clyde "Yahari" Villeda, Myitos Delivery
"Most fear I have ever experienced in my life. I have already crashed before Ms and I wasn't as scared as that night. I wasn't as scared as that night because I mean who is shooting me, I didn't know who was shooting, they were just shooting out of no where no screaming eh police, nothing, nothing. I just saw all you saw was bright bright white lights and they had thier high beam on all you saw was light and you can't really look back because all you saw was lights."
"Me personally, I tried to show that I wanted to stop I tried to flick on my brakes lights and I was trying to stop and one more time I slowed down little too much and I noticed that the vehicle was about to knock me so I gave gas again, and that was when we came we were coming coming. We passed beer house, we were coming now and we noticed ok. We are already reaching the T we are reaching the dead end. So, we have to naturally gear down and so Alberto, when he geared down his cycle, is a big cycle and when he geared down you heard pop and then my one I geared down you hear pop, because our engine was already hot so you hear the pop easily. So you heard pop pop and then you heard right after you heard pop, pop, pop, pop pop, six you heard and I was like what? No, muffler ever did that so much back to back and afterwards with the little ringing you could hear that they were gunshots."
We asked Villeda to recreate that "pop," the sound that the bikes make as they gear down. It's the sound he says the police claim to have heard as gunfire.
Clyde "Yahari" Villaeda, Myitos Delivery
"What I heard Alberto stopped right there at the end of that house, he stopped because his cycle was already failing him. So when your cycle is failing you, you have to kind of breathe, you can't just be licking shots, your cycle has to breathe. So, his cycle was already failing and he stopped because they were already going to give him, so the man said I won't give my back cause you don't know what they will do if you give your back so the man said he would turn around and give his face but when he turned around that is when they shot him."
But that action didn't save him, and this morning Dyandre's passenger - who appeared off camera due to threats and intimidation that he claims to be receiving from the police - gave us his recollections of the last moments of the 19 year old's life.
Miguel, Rode On the Back Of the Deceased's Bike
"When he slowed down he took like a turn and when we took a turn we were backwards and I turned around and I saw the police come out of the car from the backseat."
Cherisse Halsall:
"You were facing the police at this time?"
Voice of: Miguel, Rode On the Back Of the Deceased's Bike
"Yes but I just hurry looked at him and then when I saw him point the gun at me I hurried to bring down my head and I brought down his Head I told him bring down your head and then all he. Told me, he told me no dawg they will shoot you because they had already shot one at the ground and then he told me no dog they will shoot us, he told me, let it be just me he said, he told me to jump off, and I told him, no dog it's two of us I told him, it's the two of us that will die together and then he said no and at the same time he elbowed me and when he elbowed meI slid on the side and that's the moment they shot and when they shot it went right into him."
Cherisse Halsall:
"So he saved your life?"
Miguel, Rode On the Back Of the Deceased's Bike
"Aha."
"Before they put him in the car, I told him Yadiel, I told him, Talk to me dawg, and then he said boy he said Miggy I love you dawg, he told me just look after my daughter for me he told me. He said just do that for me dog that's all he told me and I told him no dawg what are you saying, I told him stay here for your daughter. I told him stay here for her dawg and he said I will try dawg but this thing is hurting me dawg."
"They turned the mobile and they took him. I didn't see when they picked him up because they turned my face into the ground and they knee on my neck, and then I told the officer that I couldn't breath and then he moved his knee from my neck and then he put it on my back."
But while Miguel was being beaten by the police, Dyandre lay dying. This morning there were tears in Clyde Villeda's eyes as he tried to imagine the fear his friend and riding partner felt as the pain overcame him.
Clyde "Yahari" Villeda, Myitos Delivery
"He was probably afraid miss, and I know Alberto, he would give his life for his daughter and his daughter was the first and last thing on his mind."
"You know he loved his daughter and he wanted his daughter to be okay because he did tell Miggy you take care of my daughter. That was his last words Miggy said because after they kicked the man, the man passed out."
But who fired the fatal shot, the young men claim that there were four officers in the mobile and while they all gave chase, only one of them is responsible for Dyandre's death.
Clyde "Yahari" Villeda, Myitos Delivery
"Miggy, well Miggy saw him when he shot because they were seeing the man in front of them shooting, the first one he missed, the second one he touched. So Miggy saw him. The man was here the whole while. He wasn't moving from Miggy's side, he wasn't moving. When he was holding that gun he was holding it with his finger on the trigger."
And with another teenager, dead at the hands at another cop, the country saw yet another outpouring of outrage.
But, there are two sides to every story and one may likely be that Dyandre Chi was evading arrest because he didn't want his uninsured bike to be impounded. His father says that petty crime didn't warrant a death sentence.
Cherisse Halsall:
"He stopped, he turned toward them and looked them in the eye, how do you feel about the fact that they still shot him?"
Alberto Chi, Father Of the Deceased
"Well I don't feel good about that because There was no need to shoot my son, there was no need. From this side going to Palmar, they burst more than six shots to nine shots, and the last one was in front of Luda's, they shot one on the ground and when they shot one on the ground my son was already coming toward them and they just aimed right in front of him."
It's a tragedy that will haunt this small community until they get their chance at justice but that's a chance that may be more than two years away.
Clyde "Yahari" Villeda, Myitos Delivery
"At the same time we are already tired of hearing manslaughter because all of them got manslaughter, that wasn't manslaughter. The moment you take a big shotgun close range you are aiming to kill, you won't come and tell me I was mistaken because even if he had missed the man's leg he would have touched the tank and the tank would have exploded."
"Honestly miss with everything that's going on it's not something that's surprising at this point I. Fear more the police than the criminals because the criminals, once you show your loyalty protect you, police you show your loyalty and they kill you."
Notably, police deny that there was any face-to-face confrontation between the cops and the young bikers and instead say that the young men overtook the cops as they fled.
