Email

Print

But, the community has a different account - and Courtney Weatherburne has both sides of the story:...

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Yesterday afternoon, this football field was overrun with Arizona area villagers as they came out to support their favorite teams in a football marathon. But all that excitement turned into fear as police shot and killed a young man known as Jose.

Voice of: Resident
"We saw the police vehicle coming in, all of a sudden they came back here to the corner here to the street and we saw the officers came out of the vehicle and a guy we know by the name of Jose, he was sitting down under a tree, a plum tree."

"I saw him running, he began to run and both of the police officer , two of the police officers went after him , chased him and they both cranked their guns and just after a few seconds I saw that the guy was running then I heard a first shot and some couple seconds after we heard two other shots."

Those shots reportedly rang out at this house as Jose dashed through this yard to get away from police. Jose was hit in his right leg. He later died at the Western Regional Hospital.

Now while residents say that they heard 3 shots, according to police, it was one single shot that was fired by mistake. According to the police report, they went looking for Jose because they had information that he had been involved in a robbery. So the officers chased Jose to the back of this yard but Jose and the police got caught up in this barbed wire hidden in the bush - and that is when the officer's gun accidentally went off and struck Jose to the leg.

ACP Joseph Myvette, NCIB
"The complainant accompanied police to an area behind Tea Kettle village known as Arizona. Upon the polices arrival with the complainant the suspect was pointed out by the complainant and when approached by the police the suspect attempted to make good his escape and was pursued by the police. During the process, the suspect received one apparent gunshot injury to the right knee. He was immediately taken to the Western Regional Hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. The identity of the suspect at this time is unknown. He is a male Hispanic descent person who has seemingly moved into the Arizona area some 4 months ago and was living in an abandoned vehicle."

"The police were on the scene yesterday after the scene was processed and they are back on the scene today canvassing the entire area to see if the identity can be determined of the person."

"I believe it was a knife robbery and properties were taken from the victim during the robbery."

But the residents completely reject police's version of events including the robbery element.

Melvin Corea, Friend
"We don't really believe what they are saying, what is being written already in the news, we actually don't believe that, exactly by the police."

"Everyone heard 3 gunshots so it is not a believable story from the police officers that one, it was one gunshot and that it was a mistake it is practically not believable."

"How can we believe that he was actually robbing if from the time he got here he never came out of the village so how can it be possible that he is robbing?"

While this case remains under investigation, Jose's friends- who were his only family in the village - just have one plea.

Melvin Corea, Friend
"Justice should be served it doesn't matter if it is a police officer, justice should be fair to everyone."

Just before news time we learnt the name of the deceased. He is Edwin Antonio Baires Hernandez, a 20 year old Salvadoran.