Police Officer Charged for Firing Gun at Police Boyfriend

Last week, a domestic dispute in Belize City took a dangerous turn when a police officer allegedly fired her boyfriend’s service weapon at him. She is twenty-nine-year-old Jeneah Arzu, who is accused of firing a shot at fellow police officer Kendale Nunez during an altercation. Nunez filed a report against her but would later drop the charges. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says that they will proceed with charging Arzu for firing a gun in a public space and that the department is looking at solutions to address the misuse of weapons issued to officers.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I know that the police officer was charged, the female officer was charged and the charge was subsequently withdrawn by her common law husband. And I had since given instruction that she must not be charged for discharging a firearm in public. We don’t need the evidence on the common law in terms of that. And so the police will be proceeding in that manner in respect to the woman officer who discharged the firearm in that area.”

 

Reporter

“Minister Musa spoke about how cops receive this type of emotional and religious training because they are dealing with firearms. But that sometimes they are humans and React in that case, do you feel like there’s more training that’s necessary?”

 

Chester Williams

“It might not be a matter of more training. It’s more a matter of knowing how to control yourself and how to control your own. As human beings we all get excited at times about issues. We  tend to overreact over incidences due to our own inner emotions at times. And so we must know how to deal with those.  that live within us. It is difficult for some people to control that. I also said to them that we need to take a second look at our firearm policy in terms of who can and who cannot take firearm home. And if we have any police officer who is constantly involved in domestic issue, those police officers must never have a gun at home. Even if it’s a license gun, we’re going to take it away until they can undergo counseling or something to be able to help them to overcome those issues that they are confronted with. And when it comes to our issued firearm we will not issue them none to take home. If they’re working in an area that requires the use of firearm, they’ll get one. When they come after you, they’ll hand that firearm back into the station. So we’re looking  at that likewise to make sure that we address this whole issue with police officers misusing firearms.”