And while police say they will investigate - the truth is Cruz Castillo was a most wanted man for a number of crimes. We learned today that he was even the main suspect in the disappearance of Teodoro Pacheco.
But, was he wanted dead or alive? That's what we asked the commissioner when he gave us Castillo's history today:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"To give a history of Cruz Castillo, he recently got off a murder charge where the matter was nole pros due to the fact that the witness did not appear in court. He was charged for the murder of an immigration employee."
"And following that matter, he was also the prime suspect in the disappearance of a taximan from Corozal Town. He was also wanted for a rape in San Ignacio where he raped a woman. He was wanted likewise for a aggravated assault in the Bermudian Landing area where he shot at somebody."
"He was also wanted for a burglary in Bermudian Landing, where he broke into a house and steal a hammock and some other items. And he was also wanted for shooting at the police, shooting at the police on the Boom road on a pursuit."
"And then again now for the murder of Shane Baizar. So Mr Castillo has been extremely busy, contrywide, moving around committing crimes."
Jules Vasquez
"With someone like, with a history like this, is it a sort of implicit directive that shoot on sight? Highly dangerous person? And don't shoot to injure. Shoot to kill."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Jules, Jules, Jules - Again, like you rightly said, the individual do have a very violent history and more so one which has no regard to law and order."
"The police officers knowing the history of him are not going to wait for him to shoot at them. The fact that he took out a weapon and was about to shoot was sufficient for the officers to act in self-defense."
"And so we'll still put the file together. We'll do the investigation and we're going to send the file to the DPP and she's going to make the determination as to whether or not the police officers actions were justified."
You will note that his history includes throwing a fly kick at a PLUS TV cameraman back in 2018 when he was arraigned for the murder of public officer Israel Perez.
