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Last night, we showed you how 27 year-old Woman Police Constable Shaneah Caliz was injured in a foiled armed robbery attempt. That's because a thief panicked and opened fire on the police mobile which pulled up on a robbery in progress. Police today charged 31 year-old Jamal Jackson for the crime, and we'll get to his criminal charges a little later.

But, first, we tell you about whom he was trying to rob. They were two security personnel contracted by the Belize City Council, who were making a night deposit at Scotiabank on Albert Street. They were depositing cash and cheques from trade licenses and property tax payments. It was quite a bit of money because March is a major financial period for the Council, because annual fees are due form business and property owners.

The robbers might have known this, but they were late, because the security guards had already deposited the money when they were held up at gunpoint.

Today, we spoke with Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley about the robbery attempt which ended when a woman constable was shot in the head. He says that the scary event reinforces the need for a roll-out of a new payment system for trade licenses and property taxes:

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City

"Our deposits are coordinated privately and also in conjunction with the police, so that's something that's structured. It's not like any security, council staff member was in peril or was targeted but it was our deposits that they were targeting."

Daniel Ortiz

"Sir it is a concern of yours? The nature of this attack as it would suggest that these persons may have been running some sort of surveillance to know the movements of money from the council to the bank."

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City

"Most definitely, one of the things we routinely do is that we monitor our procedures to see if there is any exposure to our staff, third parties, to private contractors that we engage to carry our security services; so that it is a significant concern for us. One of the things that we have been talking about and we have moved it in implementation halfway is that we want that there be all payments of property taxes, trade license and liquor fees to be done directly at the banks. So that we have been working with several of the financial institutions including Atlantic Bank so that there is now online payments and there is direct deposit payments of property taxes and various city council fees to the banks. We still have open our cashier service at all city council offices because we felt if we did that directly and just cut off the ability for people to pay at city hall, then we would have reduced our collection rates; but this is something that we are transitioning. I know that several of the schools were targeted previously when people pay tuition and so forth and there is a lot of cash at hand at schools; they have been targeted and they've moved to a model where they require all payments of school fees to be done at the bank and you just bring your receipt. This is where the city council has been moving towards."

"It's very sad in my view that a police officer was injured in this incident and I would want to behalf of the city and the city council express our encouragement to her, our appreciation for her service and the city council will do all that we can to ensure that whatever suffering she goes through can be comforted to an extent. But again this is something that would require me monitor the processes to ensure that people are not at risk in the future."

Jamal Jackson was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith on charges of keeping an unlicensed firearm, and keeping unlicensed ammunition. This is for the gun, a Glock 9mm pistol with 9 live rounds of ammunition, which he led them to on Monday night after he surrendered in a chase.

Due to the nature of the offences, Jackson was remanded to the Belize Central Prison until June 7. It is expected that he will be brought back on additional charges for the attempt robbery, and the attempted murder of the constable. Caliz was shot to the index finger and head, but the bullet never penetrated her skull – it was miraculously lodged between the flesh under her eyebrow. She was treated for relatively minor injuries and discharged from the KHMH today and will make a full recovery.