Reporter Wade to File Complaint Against Police for Assault

Last week, reports surfaced about a journalist being assaulted by police at an incident scene. Louis ‘Ljay’ Wade, a PlusTV reporter, claims he arrived at Guanacaste Park in Belmopan, where Henry Osorio and Alexander Munoz had drowned, shortly after the police. Wade says he waited at the park entrance until the police left and filmed from a distance. After the bodies were removed, Wade alleges that police approached him, pinned him against the gate, and seized his phone. They demanded he delete the videos or face charges for obstruction of justice, but he refused. Wade claims this confrontation lasted several minutes, during which his phone was taken multiple times, he was denied a phone call, and the officers refused to give their names and badge numbers. We spoke with Wade today for more details.

 

Louis ‘Ljay’ Wade, Reporter, PlusTV

“I wasn’t necessarily scared. I was just shocked at what had happened. Because I feel like the situation could have been avoided if, at the start, they would have told me to, just leave this area because we’re about to do something to the body. Then I would have left, but  it’s as they’re taking the body. Then they immediately come for me with no talking, like pinning me up against the gate that I was at. It was just, it was weird.”

 

Reporter

“And so you’re going to make a report?”

 

Louis ‘Ljay’ Wade

“I wasn’t going to make a report at first because I didn’t get injured. People weren’t there so I wasn’t too embarrassed. They didn’t break my phone. But after talking it over, yeah, I filed a report.  Yeah, filed a report.”

 

Britney Gordon

“And you said that, they didn’t have the caution tape or stuff like that. Do you think that this is probably a reason, lack of proper equipment, that they didn’t want you to record anything?”

 

Louis ‘Ljay’ Wade

“Yeah, a hundred percent because I forgot to mention, but like when they were taking me to the vehicle, he was telling me the only reason I’m there is to show the police department in a bad light. Because they weren’t transporting the body with the proper structure or anything like that. Like they were literally holding the guy by his leg, his hand. And upon rewatching the video, one of them is actually holding the guy by his hair. Like taking the dead body. But I didn’t even notice that in the moment. Like I’m just capturing the scene of the dead body being transported. But they were telling me, you just want to look bad because you see we don’t have the equipment and stuff like that. So I think that played a role in it.”