Was a Police Officer Involved in Alrick Smith’s Murder?

Alrick Smith

Investigations continue into the murder of notorious street figure Alrick Smith which occurred on the night of July twenty-eighth outside of the Rene Villanueva Media Center on Slaughterhouse Road in Belize City.  In the wake of his killing, a state of emergency was declared for the Lake Independence community.  But before we go to comments made by Commissioner of Police Chester Williams on the justification for the S.O.E., he was quizzed about his apparent interference in the detention of an alleged suspect, who happens to be a cop and driver of a high-ranking government official. This information was shared by Williams’ former boss Michael Peyrefitte on Tuesday. Here’s how ComPol Williams responded.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Somehow, I don’t know who is feeding my former boss with the degree of nonsense that he continues to spew. I trust and hope that he is not paying whoever his police source is for those information because certainly they are surely nothing but nonsense. In the wake of the murder of Alrick Smith, we had received information that the vehicle that was involved in the murder was parked at a particular house in the Japan area of Ladyville. Based on the information obtained, I directed that the police go to the house and retrieve the vehicle as well as whoever is the occupant of the particular home. Police infested the area; the house was seen with no one inside. I ordered that a surveillance team put in place to ascertain who lives at the house because if the police man who they were saying lived at that particular house; we know for a fact that he does not live there. He lives miles and miles away. And we also know that his parents don’t live there; they live much more down the road. So at the end of the day, certainly, the police officer that they were saying lives at the house or his parents live at the house, neither of those information was true. Somehow I was made to understand that directive was given to go and pick up the particular police officer and detained him. That information reached me and I was the one who called the team who went to detain the officer and told them to stand down because of the fact that it is clear that he had absolutely nothing to do with the house where they were alleging the vehicle was parked and neither did he have anything to do with the investigation. What we also learnt is that the police officer in question that they were alleging lives at the house, he did live at the house over four years ago he moved out of that house and now resides with his wife miles and miles away. So it made no sense for them to have sent of the officer to detain him just for the sake of naming and shaming and that is why I stood down the police from that detention.”