Tonight a farmer from San Antonio village is detained pending charges of attempted murder for allegedly shooting a cop. Except Dan Lopez's attorney Bryan Neal says his client didn't shoot Sergeant Dalton Kelly, it was actually police who did it while trying to wrest away Lopez's licensed weapon. We spoke to him outside San Ignacio Police Station an hour ago:
This is a portion of yesterday's heated exchange between farmer Dan Lopez and Police Sergeant Dalon Kelly.
Sergeant Dalon Kelly
"What is the reason for being on the street?"
Dan Lopez
"What?...."
Sergeant Dalon Kelly
"Listen to me, I am informing you all that you all are committing the offence of loitering. Please leave. If you all don't leave, I will arrest and charge you all."
Dan Lopez
"Why the next car in the street too?"
Sergeant Dalon Kelly
"You all are loitering. I will arrest and charge you all ig you don't move away. I'll give you all one minute. I'll come back right now."
"Detain him, he is the first one going."
Dan Lopez
"Hey, relax yourself. This thing will go to the media."
Police
"You relax."
Sometime after this Sergeant Kelly was shot in the stomach.
And so tonight, Lopez - who won Male Farmer of the Year in 2019 - is in custody pending charges for the attempted murder of sergeant Dalon Kelly.
His attorney Brian Neal, is claiming that it was another police officer who shot Kelly and not his client:
Brian Neal, Attorney-at-Neal
"We are at a state of affairs that is unacceptable, we are here because the police has acted in a way that is heavy handed, we tried to bring this matter to the attention of the authorities weeks ago in an interview with Channel 7, but it seems that what we had tried to prevent has now occurred."
"From what I have been instructed, my client did not shoot anyone. My client did not draw his weapon. My client is a law-abiding citizen and had a license for that firearm. That firearm was withdrawn from his waist by a police officer. And in the course of withdrawing that weapon, the police shot another police officer."
"So now that he is being accused of this matter, we must confront it with the truth. And the truth is that this was at the hands of the police."
He further alleges that last night police officers went to Lopez's home and police used a rock to break his foot, while his son also claims to have been abused by the cops. He is now calling on the Belize Police Department to do further investigation
Brian Neal, Attorney At Law
"My reaction is that I am not surprised. I know how the police react in certain circumstances, especially when an allegation is made that a police officer was injured."
"But I am calling on the police to do a proper investigation to interview all the witnesses that were on the scene. And if that is done, there will be no need to charge Mr. Lopez."
This all began on January 2nd, when Lopez allegedly pulled a firearm on the Land Manager Julian Sherrard and two Forestry officers.
When we asked Lopez about the January 2 incident, he denied it:
Reporter
"Did you shoot after Julian Sherrard?"
Dan Lopez, Farmer
"No and no time, never have intention to shoot someone just try to take things peacefully because that's how my dad teach me."
But yesterday Lopez was allegedly on Maya Ranch property again, this time with a bulldozer, clearing private land and that's when he was confronted by the police officers.
A police report says that when the police officers tried to arrest Lopez, he ran behind the vehicle with his gun and it was when the police got into a dispute with his father that he allegedly pulled the gun and shot the officer. It happened with one of his 3 licensed weapons:
Brian Neal, Attorney At Law
"The firearm in question is a licensed firearm that was handed back to Mr. Lopez after the previous incident about three months ago. So the police knew he had a firearm and in trying to take away his firearm they have now caused an injury to one of their own."
So, Neal says police are the culprit, while police say it's the farmer who should expect charges to be brought shortly.
For now, the owners of Maya Ranch Ltd have allowed the farmers to harvest their crops and most have left, but the Lopez's are insisting that the land will be theirs, no matter what it takes.
As an update to the story aired earlier in the newscast: Police have formally arrested and charged 35 year old Belizean Farmer Dan Lopez with the crimes of attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm and grievous harm for the shooting of Sgt. Dalon Kelly.
