Laddie Gillett was Hanging out with High School Friends on the Beach

This evening, the family of Laddie Gillett spoke to the media in San Ignacio about the tragedy. According to the legal guardian, Emil Bradley, Gillett was with friends at a neighbouring property. He received a call from his son saying that they were on their way back to the hotel and decided to jog. That’s when the police came and fired the deadly shot. Bradley says that he didn’t even know that his son had been killed until hours later.

Emil Bradley, Guardian of Deceased

“When we got the news after one, we were wondering how come he didn’t come because he called around 9:15 from the friend’s house, which is the neighbour from where he was with the friends, he gave my wife a call and said he is on his way now, they’re on their way now because the curfew time is coming, which is ten o’clock. He was with another friend. He came and he just asked me if it is okay if I go to Miss Lu, who is a friend of ours; she is the neighbour to the friends who they went to school at Belize Christian – all four of them went – his friend and the other two girls that they were with. It’s not like the media said it – they are saying it is a female having people thinking oh, they were doing something wrong.  We have pictures. They were right on the beach; it is something that they usually do. They usually hang out. Youths, right there on the beach. I mean it is somewhere that we consider safe in Placencia; hence the reason why we go down there. He was with his friend who is of age, who is nineteen years old – I don’t know if I should call names due to the pressure with social media and these kids right now, he’s been through a lot – and they decided…. I mean we have pictures with them eating cake on the beach that same night, before the curfew time. But this is not really what we are here for. We are here because somebody got shot. It doesn’t matter what time or anything like that; somebody got shot – we lost a life. It is still registering.”

Emil Bradley

Paul Lopez

“Do you know what they were doing? They were on the beach, eating cake, sitting down? What were they doing on the beach?”

Emil Bradley

“Like I said, they are friends, they are chilling out. It’s completely different from what social media is trying to portray out there; the story – it is something completely different; it’s something that they usually do. You know, youths and thing together – they are by themselves on their cell phones and giving jokes. Like I said, Laddie, he is the clown of the group. And yeah, they left, like I said, it was the neighbour so they decided to leave because of the time. He gave us a call, well my wife because I was already in bed inside the room, said they are coming now and she reminded him it’s time for you to get over here now. They decided to jog. They were jogging.  If you would visit the location where it happened, I am not trying to persecute anybody or convict the police officer here. I could understand the situation with what they are saying in the area the previous night before the security call that, but if the security was vigilant and monitoring these guys, he would have seen all four of them on the beach eating cake because it is not nowhere far. So I really don’t know what happened. The answer that I am getting is just not the right answer and I don’t think any answer will be the right answer. All I am asking here Paul is for the truth; own up to what he did. It is a life that was lost.”