And there was also a fight outside Shisha Lounge in Belize City last Saturday where 2 persons were shot - except they were injured by rubber bullets fired by a police officer.
Generally, rubber bullets are saved for riotous crowds, so the PSB launched an investigation into whether it was justified in this situation. Today the ComPol said that he doesn't fault the officer for firing the rubber bullets, but that he should have fired into the air instead. Here's how Williams explained it.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"As I said to OCED, while I do understand that the police action in discharging the weapon or the firearm in that particular area could be seen as one that was necessary but not necessary, let me put it that way. You might say how could it be necessary but not necessary but again due to what was taking place in terms of the aggression, the fighting between the two different groups, and we do know when we have rivaling groups going at each other, the potential for either one to take out weapons and use is very high so that police took out his shotgun that had rubber bullets and discharged a warning shot. My issue with it is that he fired the warning shots in the ground, you don't fire warning shots in the ground because the potential of ricocheting is extremely high. He could have fired it in the air or whatever but I can't kill the police man because at the end of the day, he saw an issue that could have escalated to the stage where persons got severely injured or killed and he being in the person in that position applied his best judgement and did what he did. A reprimand from me would be good enough for him but I don't want to kill him for what he did."
