_{Photo: Evan Nicholas Cain, remanded}

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Nov. 28, 2024

On Tuesday of this week, a traffic officer was assaulted by as many as three persons while carrying out his duties, and tonight one of the culprits, who was identified in an amateur phone video of the attack that went viral, is behind bars.

That assailant is 31-year-old Evan Nicholas Caine, aka “Sweet Bwai Caine”, a part-time bus conductor/caregiver who resides in Biscayne Village at Mile 23 1/4 on the Philip Goldson Highway.

According to police, 46-year-old Kenrick DeShield visited the police station and reported that whilst conducting duties between Miles 2 and 3 around 7:30 on Tuesday morning, he stopped a Bluebird bus heading from Benny’s towards the Smart headquarters because the door was wide open, and he noticed the presence of excessive passengers.

DeShield said he signaled to the driver to stop, and he entered the bus to make checks; and that’s when he saw many standees. He said that he then noticed a male who weighed about 200 pounds sitting in front of the driver’s seat, but the driver refused to park the bus, and sped forward.

But, according to DeShield, after the bus had passed Mile 1 and as the bus approached the Belize Flour Mill Ltd., a male person dressed in a yellow shirt, whom he identified as Evan Caine, looked at him and said, “You need to get off the bus.”

Caine then grabbed his hand and pushed him off the bus along with the help of another male he recognized to be Ocean Blease.

This morning shortly before 10:00, Caine was transported to the court in a prison van and, at around 10:15 a.m., he was escorted into a courtroom where he appeared unrepresented, and was read a single charge of aggravated assault upon a traffic officer, 46-year-old Kenrick DeShield, in the course of his duties.

After the charge was read to him, Caine told the sitting Magistrate of Court #7, “I wahn plea guilty, Maam.”

Immediately, out of an abundance of caution, given that Caine was unrepresented, the sitting Magistrate asked Caine if he understood what is an assault.

Caine replied by indicating that he did understand.

That’s when the facts of the case were read out to him; and after hearing the facts, Caine maintained his guilty plea.

During a subsequent mitigation process, the sitting Magistrate asked Caine what he wanted the court to take into consideration before a sentence was passed upon him, and he said, “I just want to get over this and get back home to care for my mom.”

The Magistrate then asked him if that’s all he wanted her to take into consideration, and then asked him if he was not apologetic for his actions, as she could observe no remorse in his statements or his behavior.

That’s when Caine said, “Well, if I have the opportunity to apologize to the officer I would, but he is not present”.

The Magistrate then explained to Caine the serious nature of the offense, since DeShield is a public officer and was doing his duties; and before sentencing him, she told him that she would remand him pending sentencing, so that she could decide on an appropriate sentence to impose.

She also indicated that in the ensuing time before sentencing, she would have the court summon the traffic officer so he could be present in court and so Caine could apologize to him in person.

Caine was then remanded into custody at the Belize Central Prison until next Wednesday, December 4, 2024.