Four residents of an apartment complex at the corner of Dean and Plues Streets, reputedly in the heart of the territory of the George Street gang, are preparing to make a formal complaint to the Internal Affairs Division of the Belize Police Department, and say they will sue the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General over an apparent home invasion by masked men alleged to be members of the Gang Suppression Unit (GSU), early in the morning of Thursday, February 9, 2012.
Shawn Alay, Albert Fuentes, Brandon Tillett and Leonard “Ghost” Myers say they were assaulted while sleeping in their beds by approximately ten masked men around 1:30 on Thursday morning.
They told Channel 7 News that the men began to beat them up, but did not say who they were, what they had come for, nor did they conduct a formal search, or question them. They then left without detaining anyone or identifying themselves, the men alleged.
The men have retained attorney Philip Palacio to file the suit. According to Palacio, when they initially tried to report the matter to the Patrol Branch, they were refused and advised to go to Internal Affairs.
That division, in turn, requested medico-legal forms classifying the injuries the men suffered, which they have now obtained.
Palacio listed the injuries suffered by his clients as follows: to Alay, harm, mostly bruises; to Tillett, grievous harm for a broken shoulder; to Fuentes, grievous harm for a broken elbow; and to Myers, wounding for a large “split” in the head, in addition to the bruises.
Despite the emergence of the names of three officers who are alleged to have participated in the incident — one of whom, according to Palacio, has been regularly associated with similar incidents— no member of the police has taken direct responsibility, and therefore, no individual member of the department can be sued as a whole.
Palacio told Amandala that the men had gone to the hospital separately, two almost immediately after the incident and the others later after learning the full extent of their injuries, and medico-legal forms had not been issued in the case of the two who had visited earlier, a matter which was now being rectified in order to make a full police report.
But Palacio appeared confident that he has a case.
“In this case, the issue of justification is non-existent; it’s not there any at all. These were people who were sleeping in their beds and they were awakened by bats being thrust on them; [the police] beating on them…Justification is not an issue in this matter at all because these were sleeping people.”
Three of the men, Tillett, Fuentes and Alay, were also present and showed us their healing injuries, but declined to have Amandala photograph their faces for this story.
Superintendent Marco Vidal, head of the GSU, told 7 News that “the GSU conducted no operation either last night [Wednesday, February 8] or this morning [February 9],” and said he could say “with certainty” that his men were not involved.
Palacio says, on the other hand, that he has witness statements from neighbors of the victims that positively identified GSU officers taking part in the raid from their voices, despite their having masks on.
According to Palacio, police officers visited the complex, owned by Barbara Frazer, to repair the broken doors, thereby, in his view, tacitly admitting police involvement.
“Ghost” Myers was charged last September for assaulting a police officer and using obscene language in the midst of a major confrontation, again in George Street territory, between the GSU and residents on August 26, 2011, for which trial is pending, and previously beat charges of murder (of Randy Conorquie, 14, in 2006) and attempted murder of Marlon Fisher (in 2007.)
Brandon Tillett (not to be confused with the Brandon Tillett killed in an incident at Palm Island Night Club on December 31, 2011) was released from an attempted murder charge last July.