Email

Print

He's the one who actually got the tip that there was a grenade on Mayflower Street. Today, Broaster brief the media about the circumstances surrounding the tip, and how it ended up in police hands. Here's what he told us:

Sr. Superintendent Edward Broaster - Deputy OCED
"The call came in at 10 o' clock and as soon as we got that call we went to the area. We cordon off the area, we search and we discovered one American type grenade. Fortunately for us the bomb expert was at the ceremonial service at the Memorial Park and he was called in and he came and secure that grenade and took it away for disposal. This is the second grenade that we have discovered within a week and we are working with the community, with other who are embracing the campaign "not in my city" to recover more grenades off the streets of Belize City."

"Also in that seizure we discover a .38 revolver which we seized as well. The area where we found this grenade is empty lot, it's over grown and the grenade was found under some bushes near a fence. The American type grenade have been used by most of Central American neighbors, particularly Nicaragua, Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. We know that the British grenade, there was a crate of 24 that went missing from the British camp, but as it pertains to the American grenade we cannot say directly as to where it came from at this time."

And going back to what General Jones said about his security concerns because it is September when there are so many mass gatherings, today, we asked Broaster what his intelligence says about security threat levels during the celebrations:..

Sr. Superintendent Edward Broaster - Deputy OCED
"I cannot say where we will find them but I can tell you that this grenade was placed there by an individual and we got the call that the person placed the grenade there and I won't go into further details as to that because we are following up on investigation on that aspect."

Reporter
"Again it's September and there seem to be some linkage with September and grenades."

Sr. Superintendent Edward Broaster - Deputy OCED
"From the intelligence and the information that we've gathered through our investigation there is no intention to lodge any grenade in any mass crowd as it pertains to carnival or any of the parade, in particular this last one. We don't have any information to suggest that it would have been used in any of these festivities."

But, it seems as though, as the proverb goes, no good deed goes unpunished. That's because in this case, there has been quite a bit of skepticism and suspicion coming from the public about the true origin of those grenades. Some have even questioned if it is police themselves who are planting these grenades to raise the profile of the department. It's the kind of thing you don't even want to entertain, but, it's out there, so, today, we put that question to Broaster, and here's how he responded:

Sr. Superintendent Edward Broaster - Deputy OCED
"That narrative there is definitely ludicrous. We would never do anything to endanger the life of the public. As a matter of fact this American grenade is much more dangerous according to Brigadier General Jones than the British grenade and we would never ever do any such thing to put or jeopardize the lives of the public."