Late word to Amandala this evening is that a second police officer, one Manuel Hill of the Police Anti-Drug Unit, has been charged with abetment to murder in connection with the death of businessman Hui Lin Chen, 38, in Orange Walk Town last Saturday night.
Sr. Supt. James Magdaleno of National C.I.B. in Belmopan confirmed the arrest this evening, but would not give further details except to say that Hill was not being accused of the murder itself.
Officer-in-charge of Orange Walk Formation, Supt. Joseph Myvett, was out of office when we called this afternoon.
Meanwhile, former police officer Kevin “Cowboy” Alvarez, 32, appeared in the Orange Walk Magistrate’s Court Friday afternoon.
He faces charges of murder, 4 counts each of attempted murder and use of deadly means of harm, 2 counts of dangerous harm, 1 count of wounding and two counts each of keeping unlicensed firearms and ammunition respectively.
Alvarez was discharged earlier in the day from the Northern Regional Hospital after recovering from injuries reportedly sustained in his confrontation with Orange Walk police on March 14. He had been shot in the abdomen and suffered other injuries and bruises.
Chen’s throat was slit during a struggle in the second floor warehouse of Mai’s Store on Park Street around 9:30 p.m. on the 14th, during an attempted robbery of the establishment. The suspect, later identified as Alvarez, led police on a chase down Bakers Street and Riverside Street to the New River, where he shot a special constable and woman police constable while refusing to surrender himself. A third constable was injured by gunfire when the suspect was cornered at the old slaughterhouse on Slaughterhouse Road before police finally subdued him.
Attorney Dickie Bradley has taken on Alvarez’s case. All the charges are indictable and therefore no plea was taken. Alvarez’s next court date is April 21.