7 News Belize

Killed At Caracol, Constable Conorquie’s Family Grieves
posted (September 26, 2014)
Yesterday, 20 year-old Special Constable Danny Conorquie was killed by Hispanic men - believed to be Guatemalans - at the Caracol Archaeological Site in Western Belize.

If they were Guatemalan, the young constable Conorquie becomes the first Belizean lawman to be killed on Belizean soil, in the line of duty by civilians from the other side of the border. It is disturbing from a security perspective - but there's also the tourism angle: the shootout which led to his death happened in plain view of several tourists and tour operators who were visiting Caracol.

And then, there's his family: they lost a son and brother in circumstances that would boil the blood of any patriot. Today, they came to the City from their home in Georgeville to deal with the post mortem.

His mother was still overcome with emotion - and angry at statements made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs:

Jean Conorquie - Mother of Deceased
"Danny love his job and he always talk on defending himself on his job, but then I don't know what went wrong for them to hurt my son like that. I am trying to hold up, but just now when I went to see him in there he doesn't look like my son at all. They are doing the post mortem, so we had to gone and ID the body. It's really hard, it doesn't look like Danny. I know someday Danny would get hurt with the cycle, or on the job, but I didn't expect it like this. They never had to do my son that. I don't know if he had any enemies out there, but in the village that he grew up everybody is Danny's friend. Everybody talks good about Danny. Everywhere I go "Ms. Jean you have a nice son" - thank you miss, thank you sir and they told me to keep on encouraging and I tried my best, my sister tried her best and everything. I don't know what went wrong."

Insp. Reymundo Reyes, Deputy Commander, Cayo Formation
"Mr. Conorquie is a young officer in the Tourism Police Unit. First he started to work in Belize City and later on he was transferred one year and 9 months now that he was transferred here in San Ignacio. He is a very productive officer; one I could say best when it comes to arrests and so forth. He was willing to go on operations, does his job to th4e best of his abilities that he could. Disciplinary, we never had any problem with that young man. He was somebody that always wanted to gain your trust and he was a friendly person."

Daniel Ortiz
"So it would be safe to say that the police department has lost a good officer?"

Insp. Reymundo Reyes
"That is right."

Jennifer Conorquie - Aunt of Deceased
"He had dreamt to be a police officer and I know that he had got into the force he would have been one of the police officer that wear that uniform with pride. The thing that really hurts us right; I work with the ministry of national security, but this might cost me my job but I don't care, it's my nephew. When we were watching the news the thing that pains a lot is that the BDF were saying that it was the xateros that shot Danny and then for the Minister of Foreign Affairs to come on the television and say that he got information that there were only two Hispanic men. Who else could it have been? It has to be the xateros. Who else would come out of the bush and hurt my nephew like that. It hurts a lot. We don't have any anger. But it pains a lot to watch the television and to hear it from the Minister of Foreign Affairs saying something like that and like we sitting there and then like there is nobody call us or anything. We, the family are trying to figure out what we are going to do or what we are going to say to my dad. My dad is 86 years old and when we had to break the news to him, it was like it's not true, Danny would never get shot because Danny don't have any enemies. But it pains our heart for someone to say it's the xateros and then coming from the high above is saying its two Hispanic men and not the xateros. I mean everybody knows that lots of things happen at the back there and it doesn't come on the news. This is not the first time that there was a shootout, they had many more, just that it doesn't come on the news."

And while that is the family side of the story, the police, the state, and the military also have to react. First off, it's a police homicide investigation.

Last night, you heard the BDF Chief of Staff explain that he was killed because of some confiscated horses. Well, police from the San Ignacio Police Station say that Conorquie wasn't involved with the confiscation of those horses. Their investigation says that another group of law enforcement officers were patrolling in the area a few hours before, and the encountered persons believed to be Guatemalan Xateros. Those officers confiscated 5 horses and lumber, but they didn't catch the men who fled.

The area then cooled off for the time between that first encounter and Conorqiue's subsequent shooting. What the investigation points to is that the young special constable was doing his duties at the site, which is to keep an eye on the tourists at the site. The Hispanic men then arrived on the compound just before midday in an ambush-type operation. The men shot him from behind and then one of them stood over him and executed him with multiple shots to the head.

We stress it's just a theory that police are working on: that Conorquie was the target of some bizarre retaliation against Belizean law enforcement.

Today, the Deputy Commander of San Ignacio Police talked with us about what they've been able to establish so far:

Insp. Reymundo Reyes, Deputy Commander, Cayo Formation
"At the time of the incident it was sometime around 11:56pm when Special Constable Conorquie and TPU Monty Peck were conducting routine patrols within the site whilst tourists were visiting the temples, when allegedly Conorquie was sitting down underneath one of the shades looking at the main temple where some tourists were when 2 male persons came from behind the bushes and fired a shot which caught him on the center of his back. Special Constable Conorquie apparently fell to the ground and that is when the person approach, stood over him and fired a single shot on his face causing him to die right on the spot. Accompanied was another male persons with these persons who shot Special Constable Conorquie who picked up the shotgun that Special Constable had and they start to retreat back towards the bushes when TPU Monty Peck had sight of them and they ended up shooting at the officer, so he in turn return fire with the shotgun that he had also, but unfortunately I believe that he never hot any of them and they manage to make good their escape."

"At this moment in the investigation we are interviewing people. We are getting statements from tour guides and so forth who were in the area, but we do not a motive. One would believe that the persons went there not to rob tourists, but they had a motive, their intention was to just reach there because as they approach the officer who was giving them his back at the time - he was shot without a word being said to him whatsoever. The officer weapon was taken. These persons came not to rob tourists or whatsoever. He was the first contact that they had and he was the first person that was shot there and then killed and they took his weapon and made their way towards the direction of Guatemala."

"Where the incident happen is actually within the compound of Maya site. The incident happened in the site itself. How far is any of the other villages that connect us to Guatemala, I cannot say, but the directions that the persons took based on the tracks that were followed by members of the Belize Defence Force lead them to that the persons made their way towards Guatemala side."

As we've told you, a representative from the Organization of American States has been dispatched to look into the shooting death of Constable Conorquie. The Foreign Affairs Ministry is keeping a close eye on the investigation, but at this time it is a Foreign Affairs matter because there is no evidence which points definitely to Guatemalan perpetrators.

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