And yesterday the commissioner of police entered the glare of the media spotlight for the first time - when he visited the scene of this especially cruel double murder.
How did he do? Jules Vasquez has analysis and a commentary:
When 8 senior officers pulled up at the Jones home yesterday afternoon - it was with a sense of law enforcement theater - the good guys were finally here, in numbers.
They milled awkwardly around the gate of a crime scene which police overlooked 20 hours earlier:
Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police
"Two motionless bodies were discovered on Cedar Street Road. As a result, police visited the location and found a motionless body of an elderly female and a male, who were subsequently identified as Luke and Evadine Jones."
And while the Commissioner's performance may have been halting - and did not include an expression of sympathy or condolence - he did have a very clear message he wanted to communicate - which he repeated:
Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police
"I recognized the anger. I recognize the plight of the community. Hence the reason I am imploring on all Belizean to support the 13th Amendment. This is why I believe that I want to beg. I want to implore on the public to support the police department, to stand with the police department as a united front, as a resolute support of the amendment of the gang and gun laws that is being proposed in the 13th Amendment of the Constitution."
That would empower police to declare special zones - much more easily than they can declare a state of emergency. The first public hearing is next week and the commissioner is pushing hard for it.
But, was it tone deaf to be lobbying for a desired change to the constitution in the face of such an unspeakable, and indeed unprecedented tragedy?
It seemed that way but what yesterday's event betrayed was a confession of a policing failure far greater than missing the crime scene.
Police had been steadily monitoring the Facebook feuding between principals of rival groups:
Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police
"We do have in a cyber crime unit individuals that also monitor the social media platforms. And the main reason is to ensure that we de-escalate tension on the street to prevent any further violence."
"Our cyber crime unit was working closely with all the social media platforms, we were monitoring it, identifying and removing them."
"We recognize the persistent challenges as one is taking down, somebody else post it, so we recognize that. But we were monitoring it from the onset."
But while they were communicating with the platforms - who was communicating with the police on the ground - who did not find the crime scene until 20 hours later when someone called it to their attention?
And while the cyber crime unit was monitoring - no one was monitoring the family home of the person making threats on Facebook and saying that they wouldn't dare touch his mother:
Patrick Jones, Son of Deceased
"Who you gwen hurt fi me? My Ma?"
"Bwai, unu got ma too,. Only my ma unu could play with."
Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police
"We do believe that they were the target due to the escalating exchange of words in social media."
So police failed to proactively prevent the crime and to retroactively discover the crime scene.
Which is what makes yesterday's scenery seem hollow and, yes, opportunistic - because ultimately it's not clear how the 13th amendment will address what really was amiss here: a basic failing of policing communication.
The police have not made any arrests for the murder.
