When we left you last night, gunshot victim Allyson Major Jr was clinging to life.  Well, the 36 year old died this morning at 9:45; the injury to his head was too massive.  And that injury came from the barrel of a police weapon.  

A police patrol which was pursuing him shot him at the foot of the swing bridge - in the centre of Belize City.  The family says it is a wrongful death, and there was no reason to shoot the father of young children.

The cops say they wanted to search Major after they saw him make a drug pick up on George Street.  And they add that they recovered 118 grams of cannabis - about 4 ounces which they claim was thrown from his vehicle.  His family says that he was in his mother's vehicle - and that he had left her home 10 to 20 minutes earlier to buy panades for his kids.

And that's why tonight, the family's legal advisor is calling it murder.  Here's what Kareem Musa said today:..

Hon. Kareem Musa
"As you know Allyson was ruthlessly gunned down yesterday on Albert Street, unjustifiably so, absolutely nothing warranted police officers who are hired and paid by the state to protect and serve us to be shooting at citizens in motor vehicles. The only scenario that would prompt an officer to respond in that manner is if Allyson or an occupant in his vehicle were firing shots back at the police and that would result in a shootout. Absolutely nothing of the sort took place. Imagine Jules just for one second, driving down South Street, two police vehicles pull up behind you and start shooting at you. Just imagine that for a second. Are you going to stop your vehicle get out and get murdered? Or will you continue driving? Allyson continued to drive up Regent Street, the family suspects he was trying to take refuge and go to the Queen Street Police Station, he had nothing incriminating on him. All this nonsense about him throwing things out of the vehicle, everybody knows that if you throw something out the vehicle, somebody would have picked it up a mile back. Absolutely nothing of the sort and so they thought that he was taking refuge at the police department, he was on his way there because he was being fired upon. Whether the police thought he was some other person, mistaken identity, whatever the case may be. It is totally unjustified; we now have criminals wearing uniform Jules."

Jules Vasquez
"Now looking at the specifics of this case, the allegation that the police press brief this morning, is that an amount of marijuana was among what he threw away, 4.1 ounces to be precise, a quarter pound. What is your response to this, is this truthful assertion or a credible assertion or and is it a justifiable reason to pursue a man to his death, endangering the public in downtown Belize?"

Hon. Kareem Musa
"Like I said Jules, the only reason that a police officer should shoot at another individual is if they themselves felt under threat. You could have taken down his license plate, you could done a check at city council who owns this vehicle, you could have followed that vehicle until it eventually stopped if that's what they wanted to do but they began shooting at him as far back as BTB but nothing Jules, nothing can warrant shooting an individual in the head! It's not as though they were shooting at his tires. They were shooting for his head, that is a direct hit to through the glass of his vehicle that hit him in his head and so there is nothing that would warrant that, absolutely nothing. So it's not even negligence Jules, this was an intentional murder or Allyson Major, that's what this was and I don't know the back story to it, maybe going forward into the future we might learn more but nothing warrants killing him yesterday."

Jules Vasquez
"So then will the family press because we know in these cases often times, if criminal charges are brought, many times it’s for manslaughter and not murder because they are in the execution of their duties etc. etc. Will the family push for murder charges?"

Hon. Kareem Musa
"I've already advice the family based on the residence that has been set with the young man that was murdered in the Caye Caulker Police Station, Mr. Suttz that the likelihood is that the police department will charge with manslaughter or the DPP may choose to charge with manslaughter (sigh). I think if you look at the intention Jules, which is what murder comes down to, if you shoot a vehicle to the back window where your head is supposed to be because that's the driver side, that is intentional. So I don't see how the police can get away with only charging with manslaughter in this situation."

Reporter
"What are they saying in terms of what led up to the high speed chase and the whole scenario that played out in downtown Belize City?"

Hon. Kareem Musa
"There's no explanation aside from the fact that they ordered him to stop, again this is their version and he didn't stop and so they decided to shoot."

Reporter
"What for was he asked to stop?"

Hon. Kareem Musa
"They said that they thought he was involved in a drug exchange, again this is hearsay and I'm not even saying that is factual, I think that they are trying to build up a case against Allyson which again still does not justify they excessive use of force but that is what they're trying to put forward that there was some transaction and they were asking him to stop and he didn't stop so they began to shoot at him."

There are also members of the public who claim that Major was trying to overtake the bus which was going up the bridge but crashed into it.  One eyewitness says that police shot him after he crashed and ground to a halt.  This is yet to be confirmed by evidence from surveillance video.