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Tonight we're digging deeper into the gun license story - and one case of a gun license issued to someone who the Commissioner of Police did not feel should have gotten one. The story has revealed itself over some weeks - with former Minister Mike Peyrefitte telling half the story, then a little more, and the commissioner doing the same - with each of their revelations pressing the other on in a kind of escalating truth or dare. It has provided a revealing look into the push and pull of executive influence on the law enforcement apparatus. But, in a spoiler alert, we can tell you that all these escalating revelations ends in anticlimax: because Compol Chester didn't so much to refuse to issue the gun license his then Minister was demanding, as much as he simply messed up the paperwork - by deliberately botching the spelling the applicant's name. We pick up the story in mid 2020 - when the Commissioner got a written directive from then Minister Peyrefitte to issue a gun license he had already refused to grant. Here is what the Commissioner told us at a ceremonial event today in Belmopan:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Him giving me a written directive to issue the license. And I did issue a license before the elections, but the firearms clerk made an error with the spelling and before that, before the elections, I was again asked by Mr. Peyrefitte and even after the elections, I was asked by him to correct the name and the truth be told I refused to correct the name. I am being honest, I, I certainly did not want to give him a gun license."
"Najera himself had tried to reach out to me through other persons, and I said, I am not going to issue. Nonetheless, he went to an attorney. I'm not going to say which attorney, but you went to one and the attorney wrote a lawyer letter which makes sense, because the truth is the police act do give the minister the powers to instruct the commissioner in writing."
"And I got an instruction from the then minister to issue the license. And so Mr. Banner's letter was to say that the fact that the Minister had issued instructions to issue a license and you had issued it just that the name was spelt wrong, you must comply with the law and issue the license. So if not, then he was going to, to the court."
"So to avoid a court matter, I decided I'm going to accede to the lawyer's request and issue the license. But at the same token, I said to myself, Well, I will issue, but I'm going to monitor him very closely because as he slips I will take it away. And it so happened he got the gun license and in 2023, I think this year he got married and he at his wedding, he took out his gun and he fired multiple shots in the year."
"I got the video of it and he was arrested and charge. He went before the court. He pled guilty and the court confiscated his firearm and I revoked the gun license and that was the end of it."
Jules Vaquez:
"But Mr. Peyrefitte is saying that you deliberately misspelled his name. It was so grossly misspelled all three of his names were misspelled."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well again I like to be honest right that's the truth. I never wanted to give him so I spelled the name wrong."
