Amandala late this evening spoke with both Elario and his son Frank, 26, who allegedly sat handcuffed and watched helplessly as police beat his father. Elario said that he was at home on Wednesday when, sometime after 1:00 in the afternoon, he heard a gunshot and saw his son come running to the back of the yard. Before he could ask his son what happened, a policeman in civilian clothes came to the back of the yard and tried to pull his son in the shirt. He said that he intervened and asked the officer why his son was being arrested. The officer did not answer him, said Elario, but shoved him aside. Undaunted, Elario once more asked the police to justify his son?s arrest. Two other policemen entered the back of the yard soon after, and the first officer, apparently bolstered by the presence of his companions, pushed Elario to the ground, knelt in his chest, and began beating him as his wife and grandson looked on, crying.
The policeman then decided to handcuff him. After being handcuffed, the elderly man was allegedly dragged to the police vehicle by the officers, who were unfazed by the pleas of Elario?s common-law wife, or the distraught screams of his grandson. The officers also handcuffed his son Frank and led him to the vehicle.
Both father and son were then taken to the Eastern Division Police Headquarters on Queen Street in a police vehicle. When they got to the police station, Elario?who had been stuffed behind the back seat of the vehicle?and his son Frank were taken into a room to the back of the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) unit of the station. After they entered the room, said Elario, one of the policemen pushed him onto the chair. One of the officers then told him, ?Ah wah do something mek di media si!?, Elario said.
At that point, the 61-year-old man said, he noticed a baseball bat in the corner of the room. The officer then retrieved the bat, he said, and said ?Ah wah f*** yuh up right front ah yuh son?.
According to Elario, the policeman then took the bat and hit him across the chest, breaking his skin and leaving a bruise that the elderly man has shown to several reporters.
Not long after, the officers decided to release Elario without charging him. But after he told them that he was going to the hospital because he was in pain, they changed their minds and leveled charges against him for resisting arrest, assault and obstruction of justice. His son was also released, but without being charged. Today, Thursday, Elario faced charges at the police station, but since the Belize Magistrate?s Court is presently being moved to the Treasury Building, he was granted station bail.
When Amandala spoke to Elario?s son, Frank Elejio, he described a hostile exchange he had had with police that may have led to their subsequent attempt to arrest him. According to Frank, he and his brother had been sitting on their verandah counting money when he saw the white police vehicle coming up the street. He alleges that one of the policemen made a rude gesture at him, and he responded with some harsh words. The police vehicle then hastily reversed, and one of the officers ordered him to ?Koh yah?. He said that he refused, and so the policeman began to pursue him. Frank told Amandala that he made a dash for the back of the yard, but heard a gunshot ring out. He said that he had run past his nephew, about 6, and then turned around to go back to the front of the yard. Before making it back to the front of the yard, the policeman and two others met him and his father at the corner of the house.
An eyewitness confirmed a portion of Elario and Frank?s story. She said she had seen a policeman standing in front of an elderly man, who was in the back of the white police vehicle? a hatchback SUV bearing private license plate C-14897. The elderly man, she said, had been stuffed in the small space behind the back seat of the vehicle, and one of the policemen was standing at the rear of the vehicle in front of him. She said she saw the other two policemen pushing a Rasta young man into the back seat of the vehicle, and could hear the elderly man asking the policeman why he was being detained. According to the eyewitness, the policeman responded by slapping the elderly man several times and threatening to give him more at the station. The policeman then slammed the hatch of the vehicle, she said, and almost ?mashed? the feet of the elderly man.
As the vehicle was driving off, the witness said, she could hear the younger man asking the police why they were being arrested and beaten. She alleges that one of the policemen replied that they had no reason for detaining them, and that, when asked if they were taking the father and son to the station just to beat them, he purportedly responded, ?Dat da weh a wah do.?