Tonight the entire Smith family from Giles Street in the Lake Independence Area remains on prison remand after police found a firearm in their house on Monday evening. As we reported, police found the gun during the repass after the funeral for 17 year old murder victim Myron Smith. The entire grieving family was arrested: Myron's mother, sister, father, and brother. Yesterday they were all taken to court and remanded for possession of an unlicensed firearm and 13 rounds of ammunition.
And like what we told you yesterday, there are two sides to every story. While police claim that the gun and ammunition inside the Smith's home, the Smith family says differently. In an interview with 7news today, relatives told us that the gun and bullets were brought into their family home by the man police was chasing and now tonight their relatives are locked up innocently.
Lavern Olivera - Family Member
"The first part I want to clear up is that the police that they first give that night that my cousin had this gun under his mattress which he was going to use to retaliate. My cousin is not that kind of person. My cousin even went on TV and let the whole of Belize and the whole world know who he is. He doesn't encourage his children. So, it hurt me when I saw that news, because I know that my cousin won't do that. When all the news came on and I found out that my cousin is at the station, when I went there, I found out that they locked him up for a gun. This little boy - when I went there, I spoke with the police, who told me that they were chasing a little boy, and he ran up the steps - they saw him with the gun. Stanley was sitting down on the step and asked him where he was going, but he went in. Stanley went into the house behind him. They house was crowded, so I don't know how police only took 7 of them. The police didn't take everybody; they lied, the house was crowded. They couldn't take the crowd. When they found the little boy, my cousin wasn't there. My cousin was across the street. They asked who the owner of the house was, and he knew he didn't have anything, so he told them that he owned it. He told them to search freely if they were looking for anything. He helped them search. When they came up with the gun, the little boy was in the bathroom hiding. He already ran and placed the gun - they saw the little boy with the gun, and still, they charged my cousin. It's just like the man from sales tax who said that they put the gun on him. He didn't even go to station, but this law, To God, it's for us the poor people. This is not for big people. I see lots of people walk off cases like this. And they will just take my cousin, his family. My other cousin went in just because she was cursing the police from the downstairs. They took her and charged her for the gun. They were choosing who they wanted to take. My cousin helped them search the house. If he knew that was in there, my cousin wouldn't have helped them search for gun. My cousin is clean. He's 52 years-old. He's never been to jail yet, never got into a problem as yet. He doesn't play around with his children like that."
Those on remand are seven persons, two of them minors; they are 52 year old Alrick Smith, 47 year old Sandra Casey, 22 year old Leon Smith, 19 year old Tamika Smith, 20 year old Rashida Brooks and two boys, their ages 17 and 16.
They pled not guilty to the charges and they were remanded into custody until August 21.
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