Tonight police are holding Belmopan resident Omar Matus pending charges. The UB student got caught in a fender bender in the capital last night. But when police responded, he had some kind of exchange with them and that is when the cops escalated on him, inflicting a vicious beating that left him soaked in blood, handcuffed in a hospital bed.
His attorney is Arthur Saldivar. We spoke to the man holding brief for him, David McKoy who spoke to Matus and his family today:
David McKoy, Attorney
"I was appalled by the injuries that he have. He has stitches on the right eye. Eye is very swollen. His mother and father was at the station in Belmopan this morning. He is complaining that he has not too good of a vision in the right eye."
"Based on the instructions from Mr. Matus is that, you know, he was beaten very severely. There are, again, the videos, I should say pictures of him like a blood bath. His bed that he was on at the hospital was very bloody, you know, so. And he's alleging that he was beaten inside the cell block of the Belmopan police station."
Jules Vasquez
"And what prompted this?"
David McKoy, Attorney
"Well, apparently what happened is that he got in a traffic accident and there was some back and forth and it was just a back and forth that prompted this, you know."
We'll let you know when Matus is arraigned for those traffic offenses and assaulting a police officer. He also intends to pursue a case against the police.
