7 News Belize

Man Says GSU Shot Off His Finger And Then Tried To Brush It Under Rug
posted (August 31, 2017)
Right now, Belize City resident Emmanuel Lemmoth is at home recovering from a gunshot injury he says was inflicted by a police officer attached to the Gang Suppression Unit. He says that last week Friday evening, the officer shot off a piece of his right thumb with a shotgun blast.

Now, that that's bad enough, because he alleges that the officer already had him subdued where he was kneeling down with his hands in the air. But, he says that the officer then tried to sweep it under the rug by pretending it never happened.

Well, he has a medical form from the doctor who performed the surgery to stop the bleeding, and he's has come forward to force the police department to address the traumatic amputation he suffered.

Today, he granted us an off-camera interview discussing it:

Voice of: Emmanuel Lemmoth
"The injury is caused by a GSU officer. They came to do an operation in the area and then they came from through the back, my friends and I were in the yard, but they bust shots from the back street. So I came around to see who it was. The GSU officer who shot me, told me to get on the ground. The man grab me by my shoulder and put me on the ground. My friend was coming behind me and when he saw my friend behind me, he took off the gun from me and he puts it on my friend and he told m friend get down. My friend got down on his knees and puts his hands in the air. The man took (GSU) the gun and put it back on me and the gun went off on my finger. The man just shot off my finger."

"I ask the GSU officer why did he shot me and my finger was bleeding. This man took his phone and went. He walk off and left me right down there on the corner bleeding. He made a call and then come back. Afterwards they told him to take me to the hospital. So the man took me at the hospital. I was at the hospital and the man stayed there a little while with me and then he went. This is it what they did to my finger."

Reporter
"Did the officer gave any kind of explanation? Did he say what happened? How do you know to yourself that the gun went off without he wanted to shoot?"

Voice of: Emmanuel Lemmoth
"Well, it's a big gun. I don't think you will shoot me on the ground and just shoot off my finger. When he took the gun off the next person, he put it back down on me and as he put it down. As he put it down - because I had my head up and I am watching to see who was coming and when I look it was my friend. I thought that he would have shot my friend."

Lemoth says that he has since gone to the Professional Standards Branch to report the incident, and he is pressing that action be taken against this officer. He claims that the officer, who he can identify, is avoiding him completely.

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