And it's not the first time we've been here - a kid gunned down by a police officer who was trigger happy. It happened with Laddie Gillett over two years ago and though he was only 14, he joined the list of men who lost their lives when a cop decided to pull the trigger.
And as the trial for Laddie continues, police now have another departmental black eye to deal with.
But though the ComPol says that police officers are humans too, we asked him about the culture of "shoot first, ask questions later" that seems to be ingrained in the department.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I would like that people be fair, we're not going to profess to be a perfect organization, just like any other organization in the world, we are imperfect but to be fair to us, we have been holding our officers accountable. Like you said, we are awaiting the decision in the Laddie Gillett matter, it shows that we are serious about holding officers accountable when they step out of line, it just so happens that police officers are recruited from among the masses of people and the fact that they are, they are also susceptible to the weaknesses of humans and with that, no matter what we do, as much as we would not want to have incidents like these, they're going to happen from time to time."
Courtney Menzies:
"Sir but it's one thing to be an imperfect human who errs, but there's a culture of being trigger happy within the department, at least with the cops who have been there, maybe not the new intake, but this culture of..."
Reporter: -
"Shoot first, ask questions later."
Courtney Menzies:
"Yes, exactly, that culture. And even though officers are being dismissed, even though the higher ups are doing what they can, it seems no rules of engagement can stop this culture or stop these cops, as Isani mentioned, we already have Alyson Major and Laddie Gillett, and now these kids were chased around Orange Walk, shots firing at them, one of them died, how do you go about trying to change this culture?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Courtney, you work in the media, how many times have you not reported on incidents where the police showed great restraint in operating? Even under difficult circumstances where the ordinary human being would use a gun, the police officers chose not to. I don't think it's a fair comment to say that we have a culture of being trigger happy. If you were to do an assessment of the police forces in the Caribbean region, you would see that Belize Police Department has one of the lowest rate of police involved shootings compared to our sister countries. It is not to justify what happens, because if you have one, it's one too much, we should not have any. But again, like I said, we're dealing with human beings and all the weaknesses that all the ordinary human beings have, police officers have them too."
