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When our news team visited La Isla Carinosa today we found a community bruised by serial police abuses and galvanized in anger by what they say is the murder of an innocent teen. Daniel Ortiz reports:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
Caye Caulker looked calm today but events from yesterday left destruction and property damage to this clinic, broken glass on the window sill where pint bottles were hurled in rage, a tense police presence to ensure no recurrence, a dead teenager known as

18 year-old Hilberto Sotz, his grieving family, and a community just under its boiling point, waiting for police to make one more wrong move:

Carmelina Sotz - Mother of Deceased
"He was my baby. He was my gold, was my eyeball. I gave him everything. I work hard to raise him. I didn't know this is the way how he will end."

Hilberto Sotz died in police hands at the Caye Caulker Police Station.

The outrage provoked by that killing escalated to a full scale riot where residents threw rocks and pint bottles at the Clinic and the police barracks. But, how did it escalate to that point?

Well it all goes back to Sunday night, when someone went on a burglary spree and targeted this green house.

That led police to round up youths from the island including Hilbert. But he was in Belmopan on the night of the burglary - he arrived on the island the day after the burglary, which his family believes should have been proof enough to exonerate him.

Santorino Sotz - Father of Deceased
"Ten youths were arrested. A burglary happened yesterday night and my son was not there. My son was in Belmopan. So my son reached at 8:45 on the first boat. When my son reached at 8:45 I took him home to see his mom, because he said he wanted to see his mom."

Vendor
"I am a tacos vender of Caye Caulker and I saw personally the little boy came off the water taxi. I think it was the first boat from Belize City to Caye Caulker and his father picked him up and they bought something in front of my place. They went inside the shop and the father bought a beer and the father say let's go home."

Nevertheless, he was picked up by a police officer

Santorino Sotz
"The police came and told me to stop and he said that my son is under arrest for an investigation. And I told him 'officer how is my son under investigation when he was not here?' He said 'no worry, let's go' and he grab my son on his pants and drag him like a dog. As he dragged my son I went straight at the police station and told the officer that my son doesn't know anything about anything. I told the officer to take care of my son and that I don't want them to hurt my son."

Hilberto called for his father 2 hours after being detained but the police refused to allow him access. A short time later, Santorino received information that Hilberto was dead.

Santorino Sotz
"When I reached at the doctor, the doctor told me that when the police reached at the Medic center, my son was already dead."

Jules Vasquez
"How did he die?"

Santorino Sotz
"The rest of the prisoners say that they (police) put the plastic over his head and start to beat him. Right now another youth is locked up, they beat him bad."

Voice of: Rajiv Castillo - Island Resident
"Look like they put a plastic bag over the man head and threw chemical (pepper spray) in the bag and it look like he passed out."

Santorino Sotz
"I don't know why they had to do that? Why they didn't take him to the magistrate and have the magistrate deal with it? I don't think they have the right to beat a person to death."

According to the residents, police initially tried to deflect blame by suggesting that he died at the clinic

Voice of Eyewitness
"Yesterday evening after they beat up the little boy, they went at the clinic and they wanted the doctor to say that the little boy died at the clinic. But the little boy was already dead, because I was a witness. I was in one of the Chinese shop when I saw them pass with the little boy on the golf cart - two police and the little boy. But the little boy didn't look normal. He was leaning and they holding him up."

The Caulker Police also told Hilberto's Mother, Carmelina that he died from a breathing problem, something she rejects completely.

Jules Vasquez
"Now I want to make it very clear. Was your son a healthy young man with no known health problems? Did he have maybe a congenital heart defect? Did he have respiratory problems? Did he have any problems?"

Carmelina Sotz - Mother of Deceased
"No problems. I swear to God I never come to the hospital with son at any time. That's why that is what is killing me inside. I want to be strong, but I can't, because inside of me just can't take it anymore."

That has led the family and friends to assert that police killed him.

Kareema Garnett - Observed Riot "The police are chancey and it is them who killed the little boy. I don't know why they don't come out here like how they were out here last night pappy showing themselves. It is not right. They killed the little boy and they should own up to what they did."

That's bad enough, but because no one was giving the family answers, the community started gathering in their support. They started to demand from police an explanation of how the young man died. When none was forthcoming, tempers were already hot, and it took one incident to rub the crowd the wrong way, and it escalated to a riot.

Kareema Garnett - Observed Riot
"The whole reason the riot started was because the police came downstairs and pointed in the father of the dead child face. He came down and point in his face and told him to stop talk stupidness. The man was talking for his rights. After that he came downstairs, drove in the golf cart and knock a guy off his bike. That is why everybody start to fight with him and he ride gone and bring an entire force and they came pushing and slapping people. That is not right."

Deon - Island Resident
"The GSU Unit came in here and firing so many shots. They fired almost 300 rounds last night, throwing down people on the ground, pushing guns in females' faces - that type of respond was not needed last night. What was needed was the people coming in here and try to give the people answers. People were out here looking for answers and all they got was police brutality. They didn't get any response. The units that came in, they just came in clearing the streets with their shot guns and their automatic rifles and pointing guns and pushing people to the ground - all type of stuff that wasn't needed last night. It just escalated the issue. People out here are tired of what the police been doing for months and it's not like the commanding officer of the police department doesn't know, because I personally have sent emails and went to meet with officials in San Pedro about the activity on police officers on this island."

Reporter
"Were you even able to determine about how many shots were fired?"

Deon - Island Resident
"About 300 shots, maybe more. The police officers work this morning early when I got up and they were walking around picking up the suspended shells."

The whole island is especially enraged because it is the third man to die inside that police station.

Voice of: Island Resident
"Right now the whole island is mad about what happened, because this is the third time they are killing somebody in that station. The police are based on the "black" neighborhood, they said that they will arrest them because they were stoning. It's not only them stoning, the whole community was stoning at the clinic and at the policemen, because all of us are tired of it. I don't know what they are only base on "black" neighborhood. Everyone was stoning. So, if they detained 6 of them over there, they should detained the whole island."

Voice of: Island Resident 2
"I hear a little talking this morning about they have a couple names written down who they will pick up to do things to. I just want to tell the media this, I am not a bad man, but all they will do is start another riot. Because if they come for me or any one of us out here and lock us up, it is going further and I want the media to know we are really tired of this and want justice. We need justice. We are tired of it."

Voice of: Island Resident
"The little boy that they killed wasn't on the island. That little boy just reach yesterday on the island and they grab that little boy and they tortured him until they killed him."

Deon - Island Resident
"The first thing they are going to try to do with this kid's name is try to dirty him up and make him look like he is a criminal. He wasn't that type of kid. He was a hard working kid. Everybody gets in a little contact with police every now and again. Show me somebody that haven't had contact with police department."

Reporter
"What do you expect will happen now?"

Deon - Island Resident
"As far as I know one officer was detained and the other one was held as material witness. What I want and what the community wants, we want answers. Because we don't want them to sweep this under the carpet like they always do. We need answers."

In relation to how the police handled last night riot, we've been able to get some perspective from some of the responding officers.

The eastern division strike team led by Commander of Operations Sr. Supt Alford Grinage deployed for Caye Caulker at 7:45 pm last night. They arrived on the island at around 8:30 where they were joined by a deployment from the San Pedro formation. They encountered two to three hundred hostile residents in front of the polyclinic where police had deposited the body of 18-year-old Hilberto Sotz. As we told you, they had been stoning the building and at island police. A total of 50 police officers using full riot gear formed a line and pushed the crowd back with shields. Police say they did not fire any live rounds. Within an hour the police say they had the situation under control - meaning the crowd had calmed down.

But, as we showed you, the police back up which the community complained about was the Gang Suppression Unit. As we showed you, live rounds were fired, most people we spoke to agree that the armed GSU officers aimed their weapons into the air, but just the threat of armed officers with high powered weapons caused residents to complain that the police were using leach force excessively. We tried to get a response from the Commander of the GSU, Inspector Mark Flowers, and he declined. He said that the island residents weren't being completely truthful dismissing the issues raised as idle talk and misrepresentation.