The first of four murders in the Christmas season is perhaps the most puzzling. A 23-year-old man with everything to live for went out with a friend, ostensibly on an errand, but ended up dead, leaving his 1- year-old son orphaned and his family grieving.
Adding insult to injury, that family now believes that investigators in the Police Department have been involved in a cover-up of the circumstances surrounding the murder, and is attempting to “shoehorn” Christopher Martin Galvez’ death into the familiar, depressing dichotomy of gang warfare and retaliation.
Hon. Carlos Perdomo, under whose portfolio the Ministry of National Security falls, appointed a three-person team consisting of senior personnel from the Ministry to investigate allegations about the conduct of police officers and investigators.
This evening, Christopher’s father, Martin Galvez, told Amandala that he and his family would not give up in trying to get closure and justice for “Chris,” as he was known to family and friends.
On Tuesday night, December 22, around 8:00 p.m., Christopher had just finished work at the family business, Royal Wholesale and Retail, at #46 Vernon Street, when according to Martin, Chris’ friend, Andre Aguilar, a tour guide from San Pedro Town, showed up in his vehicle and apparently persuaded Chris to leave with him.
Neither youth said where exactly they were going, Martin recalled, but in the sight of his entire family and in response to his uncle Ramon’s questions, Chris merely said, “I’ll be back,” to his favorite aunt, Yolanda Schakron.
Martin headed upstairs of “Red House,” as the business is informally called, to his residence, with his younger children, intending to buy food to eat. Another of Chris’ uncles, Howard Fuller, called from the United States and asked after Chris; Martin told him his son was out and would be right back.
Unfortunately, Chris never came back, as while Martin was tending to a friend’s, Dean Jeffries, request for a ladder around 8:30 p.m., Ramon Galvez received a phone call and came over, in a state of excitement, and told his brother: “Martin, Christopher just got shot.”
Asked where, Ramon said he had been told the incident took place at “Novelo’s.” Thinking he meant the bus terminal on West Collet Canal, just down the street from his residence, Martin went with family members and Jeffries to the area, preceded by their 20-year-old son, Zane.
Finding nothing amiss, they received another phone call directing them to the Western Highway, to an area near the bus company’s depot.
By this time, Chris had apparently been shot once in the right shoulder, the bullet exiting and coming up to his jaw, passing under his tongue, breaking two teeth, and exiting under his left ear, in the Pipersburg Boatyard at Mile 2 ½ on the Western Highway.
But his father did not know of this, and as he raced to his son, he could only think of the last time Chris faced a gun – the infamous February 8, 2008 shootout at the now defunct Putt Putt Bar and Grill on Newtown Barracks that claimed a young girl’s life and saw Chris hit four times, yet survive – and prayed that he was still alive.
That wish was not granted. Upon arriving at the scene, police initially fended him off, until he informed them that his son had been shot, whereupon a worker at the boatyard gave him the tragic news: “Sir, I am sorry to inform you that your son is dead. I work here, and I saw his body.”
Upon seeing Chris’ remains Martin noticed that while his son’s face and head were covered in blood, there was no blood on his clothes or any part of his body below the neck. This was the first “red flag”, as a police officer came up to him and claimed Chris had apparently been shot inside the vehicle.
Martin witnessed a senior policeman ask Andre Aguilar, who was also present, where his vehicle’s license plates were, after confirming with him, Martin, that the vehicle Aguilar drove to Red House in to pick up Chris had license plates on.
Aguilar at first claimed the plates were in the bushes, but when the senior man tasked a subordinate to recover them, Aguilar changed his story and claimed they were in a boat next to Chris’ body. The senior officer, exasperated, ordered he be cuffed and his effects taken away. The plates were eventually recovered from the boat.
Martin was told that as many as nine persons were at the boatyard that night, and all heard at least one gunshot (some claimed as many as four), but saw nothing, too busy running for cover.
After securing a sheet to cover the body, it was taken to the morgue and Martin went home.
As soon as he got home, he was called by a person claiming to be a police officer who told him that a certain corporal was involved in the killing. This corporal, the caller claimed, was first on the scene and allegedly found Andre Aguilar with his gun, and counseled him that since the murder “done happen,” he should “(expletive) that… put weh the gun and tek off the license plates from the vehicle and throw them in the bush.”
On December 23, with the news already making the rounds and the police announcing the detention of Aguilar (not identified in the police’s press release as is the custom) “for questioning,” Martin and his brother were with a senior officer at Racoon Street when Zane Galvez called his father to tell him that the corporal Martin was told about the previous night was at their house, threatening the family with a gun and raving that “the Galvezes had accused him of killing Chris.”
Worse, another senior officer was on the Galvez premises taking a statement from a family member, and after being apprised of what was happening, wearily promised to “deal with” the matter at the station.
The next bombshell fell when, at the early morning post-mortem on December 24, Martin Galvez was informed that his son had not been shot in Aguilar’s vehicle as was previously alleged by police, but had gotten into a struggle outside and had been shot while apparently held or tied down.
It was the considered opinion of examiner Dr. Hugh Sanchez, said Martin, that Chris “did not have to die… if he had gotten any assistance at all, he would have been living today.”
The bullet touched no vital organs, and while the vehicle had blood on its seats, the blood observed was inconsistent with the amount that should have been spilled to fit the scenario painted by the police, according to observers.
(Galvez revealed to Amandala in our interview that he hired a second doctor, present at the post-mortem with Dr. Sanchez’s and the police’s consent, and that he will write his own report.)
It was the professional opinion of the police officer attending the post-mortem that Aguilar would face charges of some kind, but it appears that by this time he had already been released from police custody, according to Martin’s source, and boarded a plane for the United States.
Beginning on the 23rd and continuing even to today, Yolanda Schakron, Chris’ aunt, told us she has been getting text messages purportedly coming from Chris’ cell number, some threatening, some cajoling, telling the family to in effect, “back off.”
One of the early messages claimed Chris had been “sacrificed” by his friends; another threatened the death of other family members. Amandala was personally shown two messages sent within minutes of each other today.
The first reads, verbatim, “what you want me to give in myself an confess;” the second, “so tell me why you going to the police so much you still havnt answer my questions. Why not.”
Schakron believes the writer of the messages is trying to “provoke, or torture the family.” (Chris’ chain, cell phone, bracelet and wallet were missing at the scene and are believed to have been stolen.)
With all this, the family believes two things: 1) that the police are engaging in a cover-up; and 2) that Aguilar, in particular, knows more than he has told.
Following the revelations made on KREM Radio’s “Wake Up Belize Morning Vibes” on Tuesday morning, December 29 (Martin and Yolanda had spoken to Channel 7 News’ Jules Vasquez over the weekend, but his interview was aired during the news on Tuesday night), the police responded.
Commissioner Crispin Jeffries told media houses at a press briefing later on the 29th that contrary to the family’s claims, police records show that Aguilar was kept for 24 hours, made a statement in the presence of two attorneys, and was let go after it was established that “there was no further interest in him.” The Department has transferred the corporal that threatened the family out of the city, and is keeping an eye on him.
But the matter has now gone above Jeffries’ head, at least administratively, as Minister of National Security, Hon. Carlos Perdomo, has appointed deputy national security coordinator, Oliver Del Cid, Ministry administrative officer Mrs. Jennifer Saldivar Ramirez, and the police liaison officer, ASP Marlon Allen, to investigate, specifically: (1) “The allegations of unprofessional conduct made against personnel of the Belize Police Department in their handling of the Investigation; (2) Whether any external interference occurred resulting in the release of the detainee Andre Aguilar; (3) Whether any procedures/laws were breach by his release; and (4) The allegations of threats made against the Galvez family by a police officer.”
The Minister will receive a report from the team at the end of the investigation. Amandala can reveal that PUP Albert area representative Hon. Mark Espat wrote to Hon. Perdomo on December 30, urging that such an investigation be conducted, stressing that “already the confidence of the public in the criminal justice system sits at an all-time low. Unless the sequence of unsolved murders and misconduct on the part of law enforcers is broken, unless justice is done and seen to be done no matter who may be punished, then the orgy of violence in our communities will not abate.”
(Martin Galvez says he will contact Hon. Espat to thank him for the letter, which he had not known about until today; Royal Wholesale and Retail (Red House) is located in Area 16, the northernmost part of the Albert constituency.)
Lost in all the back-and-forth is the life of Chris himself. While Martin will not swear for any of his five children, including the late Christopher, none of his sons possess criminal records or have gotten into any trouble save in relation to the Putt Putt incident.
Chris was a promising junior cyclist who was forced to give up the sport after the Putt Putt incident and had, prior to his death, taken up football instead, earning attention from semi-professional teams such as former BPFL national champions Hankook Verdes and former top striker, Ricky Gongora.
Martin Galvez, who raised his kids alone following the untimely passing of his wife five years ago, says he will continue to cooperate with the police, and investigate how his son came to die.
“I will accept anything – if they tell me he was out selling weed or whatever – anything so long as it’s the truth. I have always told the truth, and I will not allow them to taint my son’s name in his death, tie him to drugs or gangs, unless it’s true.”
Christopher Martin Galvez was laid to rest at Homeland Memorial Park on December 30, following well-attended funeral services at St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church.