Police Struggle to Break Up Fight that Ends with Stabbing

A Belize City resident was stabbed on Friday night and was also the victim of a vicious beat down at the hands and feet of his attacker.  It happened at the intersections of Neal’s Pen Road and Central American Boulevard and despite initial attempts by three police officers who responded to the incident, they were unable to subdue the assailant.  The man was able to free himself from the arresting officers and attack his victim, repeatedly kicking and punching him before other officers were called onto the scene.  Fortunately, the victim survived the violent attack and is recovering.  The question that lingers, nonetheless, is whether the responding officers could have handled the situation differently.  According to ComPol Williams, the police exercised great restraint, but he would have went about it differently had he been faced with that situation.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The incident, I must say, is one that really and truly, I don’t know what to say per se, but I saw a situation where the police officers were doing as best as they can to detain an individual who had stabbed another.  And as much as the police officers were trying to apprehend that individual, he was consistently resisting and trying to go after that person that he had stabbed.  Obviously, his intent was to kill because even though the person was lying on the ground he was stomping the person in the head and the police officers again, while some may criticize them and say that they did not perform their duties the way that they should, I’m not going to go to that extent because sometimes, no matter the training you have, when you confront a situation you tend to forget that training and you just do what you believe can be done in that instance.  But if it were me, from the mere fact that the individual had stabbed that person, the person is on the ground and he’s constantly going after that person to try and finish off that person, I would have shot him.  Again, the police officers who were there had weapons but they exercised great restraint and I must applaud them for that, even though I would have acted differently.  I still endorse their actions in terms of exercising great restraint.”