And while police have generated some good PR for those arrests, the
Department ought to be hurting after one of its officers was roughed up and
disrespected by a trio of criminals. On Friday night at 8:30 twenty three year
old Constable Zaccheus Caal was in uniform, walking by the corner of Albert
and South Streets when he was assaulted by three dark skinned young men. ne
of them pulled out a black nine milimeter pistol and pointed it at the unarmed
police officer. But one of his partners noticed that Caal wasn’t the officer
they were looking for. But instead of leaving it at that, the young man with
the firearm then said that since Caal was already there, he should take the
beating. He struck Caal in the mouth with the gun and kicked him on his knee.
The three assailants then ran down South Street into Wagner’s Lane.
Caal called 911 and a police mobile in the area responded. They picked
up Caal and circled the area which is when they saw one of the assailants on
a bicycle on East Canal. When he saw the police were on his tail, the young
man got off his bike and ran into a nearby yard, but he did not get very far.
The fifteen year old was captured and police retrieved a loaded nine milimeter
pistol he had allegedly thrown away while fleeing. The pistol had 10 live rounds.
Now, a 15 year old “boxing-up” a uniformed police in big,
open street – that’s another level. Today Head of Crimes Investigation
in Belize City Aaron Guzman says the minor is not cooperating, but they are
warning officers.
Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“I would have liked though for him to have said what is the reason
for him and two other persons to accost the police officer and assault him with
that firearm. One of them said clearly that it was not him but still insisted
on administering a beating on the police officer with that firearm. He hasn’t
said to us the reason why, that is his right, he doesn’t have to explain
to us why so we have our officers be real cautious, we will have to ask that
our intelligence officers try to find out if there is something out there with
a specific police officer or generally police officers that these young men
have some gripe with.
I will also tell you too that that firearm that was found is a firearm
that is licensed but it was reported stolen. So there are other charges that
will be forthcoming concerning that firearm and the young man it was found with.
As far as we know, he doesn’t know these young men, he doesn’t
recall them having any problem with him.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
But how about the specific officer they were looking for?
Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“That is it Jackie, I don’t know because the young man was detained,
the 15 year old, and yes we put questions to him but he doesn’t have to
answer to us and he hasn’t answered to us. So we don’t know if generally
they are targeting police officers or if there is a specific officer that he
and his two companions were looking for.”
The fifteen year old remains in police custody pending charges.
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