Category: Cayo District

A week has passed since the Belize Police Department launched its investigation into an incident that occurred inside the San Ignacio Community Hospital involving so-called gang members. As we reported, alleged gang leader David Galindo was rushed to the hospital with gunshot injuries. It is said that several gang members intimidated healthcare providers and damaged hospital property, fearing that Galindo would lose his life. He died a week later, and all indications are that the Belize Police Department did not become aware of the events that transpired until days after the incident when it was reported in the news. Today, Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa was asked if there was a breakdown in communication somewhere. Here is how he responded.

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“Like I mentioned previously I believe I met with the media Friday, Thursday or Friday. The only report that came to police was the issue of the damage to property. And so that matter was dealt with the individual was charged the following day. And I actually, I believe he pled guilty, the individual that damaged the glass. And he was fined fifteen hundred. And so that was the only report that came to the police department. And so I know that there is a lot of examination going on in terms of the timeline in which this information was provided. But let me say that it was not provided to the police. It was provided to a media outlet. And one would expect, moving forward, responsible media outlets would contact the police Before trying to claim credit to say we were the ones who got that information first. This is not a competition. The police is not competing with any of the media stations. And it is hoped that we are all in this fight against crime. That you would do the responsible thing. Ask the police for their side of the story. Did a report like this come to you? That was never done. Instead it was shared on a morning show I believe. That’s not the way that we are supposed to be working together. And so I want to ask the cooperation of media houses. We’re not trying to compete for any sort of glory. This is not about chess beating or ego building. This is about trying to fight and stop crime. And so my suggestion moving forward is that had the doctors gone to the police first, that then an investigation could have taken place. But the only thing that came to the police was a damaged property case.”

Police continue their search for Mynor Galindo, the brother of now deceased alleged gang leader David Galindo. But according to the Minister of Home Affairs, video footage from the San Ignacio Community Hospital has so far revealed that he was not at the hospital. This narrative lines up with the account he gave News Five when we spoke with him last week. Here is what Minister Musa told reporters today.

 

Reporter

“I know the police are looking for Minor Galindo. I understand he was the one who identified his brother’s body. Is there any reason he wasn’t picked up at that moment?”

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“I am told  from a review of the video footage, and I hope I’m not being premature here, but I am told that he was not identified at the hospital based on the review of the video footage, and so whether he took part in something thereafter, that again is under investigation but in relation to the incident the night of the hospital I’m I’m  He was not there based on the review of the footage.”

 

Reporter

“How is the search for him going?”

 

Kareem Musa

“I’ll have to check with the Commissioner of Police on that.”

The unfortunate incident that occurred at the San Ignacio Community Hospital earlier this month made headlines earlier this week when it was revealed that a group of persons stormed the facility where David Galindo was receiving emergency medical treatment.  Galindo was shot on the night of June first in Santa Elena Town and he was transported to the hospital in San Ignacio.  While there, his family and friends showed up and reportedly made threats to the medical team attending to the wounded man.  The incident raised the ire of Cabinet and, earlier today, Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa weighed in on the matter.

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“I have heard two different accounts of that.  There is a police version which they are saying that there was another stabbing that had taken place which they had to respond to, and there is the medical professional’s version whereby they were saying that the gang members were banging on the police officers’ vehicle.  Now, even if you take into account those two scenarios, I don’t think that it could necessarily be said that they expected, meaning the police officers expected that these individuals would have been so brazen as to try to take over the hospital because that is, in effect, what they tried to do, from the account of the medical professionals.  And so, I can’t say that the police officers knew that was going to happen, and if they knew then that would have been negligence on their part.  They saw the individuals aggressing doctors, aggressing nurses, then they ought to have stepped in.  Absolutely, when this incident occurred, I believe there was only one report that was made, damage to property.  Right away, the following day, the individual was charged, taken to the magistrate and fined, as far as I am aware, fifteen hundred dollars.  There was no other reports of threats issued to the medical officers and so when that news broke many days later, it wasn’t as though the doctors and nurses had complained to the police that something had happened and the police did not respond.  At least that is my understanding of the situation and so when it came to light that instead of going to police, they went to Channel 7 to provide this information, obviously the police had to take very swift action.  Cabinet took swift action because this is absolutely out of order for a situation like that to have occurred at a public hospital.  Hence the reason Cabinet has issued a very strong condemnation and strong action of going after these individuals and oftentimes we are working out a protocol with the San Ignacio Hospital and then I mentioned to the ComPol that we can’t wait for it to happen again at another hospital and so while it is we are establishing protocol for this one, we might as well try to replicate a similar protocol for all hospitals because it’s completely out of order and we cannot have an incident like this happen again.”

A rise in cattle deaths that was initially reported in May is no longer an issue. Today, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Jose Abelardo Mai told News Five that the onset of the hot season had also brought with it other issues for the farm animals. He said that officials from the Belize Agricultural Health Authority, BAHA, and the Agriculture Department visited the farms that were experiencing cattle deaths and gave recommendations. According to Mai, the problem has subsided.

 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture & Food Security

“They had made very sound recommendations. I think the problem they have found was normally, The nutrition first and foremost. It was the pig I dry. When animals do not eat well, they get vulnerable. They get compromised, their health get compromised. And so they had I think it was an excess of ticks. Or was it tick fever? I think it was. So the Baha and the Ministry of Agriculture gave recommendations. A few farmers followed it. They did well. Others who did not, they still had some problems. But I think we’ve passed that problem already.”

While we had him with us today, we also asked Minister Mai for his perspective on the recent incident at the San Ignacio Town Hospital where members of a family are said to have barged into the facility and threatened the medical staff if they didn’t save a loved one. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams has told us that he has suggested more stringent measures to be put in the place at the hospital, as well as the consideration for the hospital to have its security guards become special constables to be able to make arrests. It is a protocol he says the police is considering extending to health facilities in other areas of the country. Today we asked Minister Mai, who is the Area Representative, Orange Walk South if the measures to control any boisterous behaviour at health facilities in Orange Walk.

 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Area Representative, Orange Walk South

“Crime in any shape or form is bad, especially at the hospital, it is just makes it even worse. But Minister Musa and his police officers, they have adjusted – Commissioner Chester Williams, the Prime Minister, spoke on it and he was very concerned. He said we need to find these people and jail them, arrest them, let the law apply to them. So I don’t have much of a concern here because I know it is an isolated matter. It has been addressed and I think that it shouldn’t happen again.”

 

Marion Ali

“Is it something that you’d like to see implemented here in Orange Walk, where you’re a standard bearer yourself – sorry, an area rep?”

 

Jose Abelardo Mai

“Of course. We haven’t seen that in Orange Walk yet, I believe, but as a citizen and a leader in government, I would like to see that crime be eradicated so that we can address quickly and swiftly and let the law apply swiftly.”

It happened on June first, but only came to light this week, that doctors and nurses who were on duty at San Ignacio Community Hospital that night came under threat by relatives of a severely injured man. David Galindo was shot while visiting his girlfriend on Salazar Street in Santa Elena Town and was rushed to the hospital for treatment. He died a week later, but the series of events that occurred at the hospital on the night he was taken there have reportedly left the staff at the facility in fear of their lives. Members of the Galindo family are accused of hurling threats at the medical team that if David Galindo died, the medical professionals would die too. But the family has come out slamming the Belize Police Department and the media for referring to them as gang members. And when asked about it, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams basically brushed off the family’s reaction. He told reporters that, moving forward, he wants the Belize Police Department to collaborate with the hospital in formulating protocols so that order is kept. News Five’s Marion Ali filed this report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

The Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, arrived at the San Ignacio Community Hospital just before two p.m., where he met with the management and staff, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. He told us after the session that he wanted to hear firsthand from the officials what transpired on the night of June first, when David Galindo was taken to the hospital.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Having heard from them what took place on the night in question, we discussed to see what we can do to make sure that there is no occurrence in the future. And one of the things that we are doing is that my legal officer, Mr. Jones, will be working along with Dr. Sabido to develop a protocol in terms of how the police is going to respond to incidents at the hospital. And even what the police is going to do when there is a high profile patient being treated at the hospital. Particularly if that patient is brought by the police. So the, way it was done before where the police just come and drop the person and leave. There have to be something done to create police presence. In the event that persons may want to come and create problems.”

 

The family of David Galindo has lashed back at the police, denying that they are gang members. Galindo’s brother, Mynor Galindo told News Five on Tuesday evening that he was not at the hospital the night when his brother got shot and only found out that he had been shot when his family called to inform him. He said he found out that the ambulance driver did not want the family to accompany David to the hospital and that if they tried to, he would park the ambulance. Galindo said this was when there was some back and forth with the staff.

 

 

 

In a Facebook post, Dianie Waight, said that she was the only one who accompanied her brother in the ambulance. She denied that any of her relatives are gang members. Waight said, “It wasn’t even the police that took him to the hospital. We did cause if it was left to them, as they hear a Galindo is down, they would move much slower. They took more than thirty minutes to arrive at the scene. We were desperate, we wanted the doctors to move faster. I do apologize for any misbehaviour. The next thing, they said a gang member. Soh I da gang member now then? I had a right to go along. Somebody had to go with him.”

 

 

 

Commissioner Williams did not care to respond to the Facebook post. He focused his comments on the meeting with hospital administrators and told reporters that investigators are reviewing surveillance footage from the facility to identify the persons who threatened the hospital staff. During the meeting, the ComPol shared a few suggestions.

 

Chester Williams,

“I also suggested to the hospital what they can do is that, with their security that they currently have, we can look at training them and making them special constables. Since the police is not able to work at the hospital on a 24 hours basis, the security that they have, if they’re special constables, they’ll have the poor as a police. They’ll be able to do law enforcement job and arrest people who may come on the grounds to create problem. We also discussed to see how we can do we’re going to be doing crisis management training for both the hospital staff as well as the police again. The hospital staff would require the training so that they know how they’re going to handle a crisis at the hospital and the police will be trained to be able to respond to that crisis, so it’s going to be a joint venture between the police and the hospital authority to make sure that should there be a crisis, our response is going to be in sync with each other.”

 

This is an idea that Williams would recommend for hospitals across the country, especially the ones that are in locations where gang activity is high.

 

Chester Williams

“We have to make sure that when we do have patients who are high profile, when I say high profile like in the sense of their presence at an institution may create some threat, then we will have to make sure we have a system in place to be able to deal with that so it can be replicated across the country. Again, really said they does have something not in writing, but it is implied. Police officers do know that when they respond to an incident at K.H.M.H., we normally leave police officers there. We’ll see how we can adapt that. In the time being, police can stay at the hospital while the patient is here, at least for a certain amount of hours until the patient is stabilized or transferred or whatever.”

 

When asked why the meeting had just been called when the incident occurred from June first, Commissioner Williams said that he had just recently become aware of its veracity and egregious nature. Marion Ali for News Five.