BELIZE CITY, Mon. Nov. 15, 2021 — A 28-year-old Supaul Street resident has made claims that he was wrongfully targeted and shot by police officers who stormed into his home on Saturday night to question him about a recent shooting incident on Amara Avenue. That incident reportedly occurred a little earlier in the day when a motorcyclist and his passenger fired shots at a group in a yard that caused injuries to two persons.

Reese Fitzgibbon, who said that he was with his kids when officers stormed into his home and subdued him, denied any involvement in the shooting and implored the officers to let him continue caring for his children, since their mother was not at home.

Instead, however, Fitzgibbon was handcuffed and escorted out of the yard and into a police mobile, where he was reportedly shot with rubber bullets. Apparently, unbeknownst to the police, Fitzgibbon had his cellphone, and he was able to upload photos of his injuries to social media. It is being claimed that these photos were reported to Facebook authorities and removed from the site; and that officers then confiscated Fitzgibbon’s phone.

Following Fitzgibbon’s arrest and the apparent wounding of Fitzgibbon by police, he and his family made an attempt to visit the Professional Standards Branch to report the incident. They were unable to make a report, however, because Fitzgibbon was unable to present a vaccine card or recent PCR test. He was denied entry to the building, but he claims he will continue to pressure the department into taking action against the offending officer.

His family claims police officers have constantly targeted Fitzgibbon — leading the family to purchase a surveillance system to record footage of any unconstitutional behavior by officers who enter the yard. The family is claiming, however, that no footage of the recent shooting exists because the officers waited until Fitzgibbon was in the police mobile and out of the camera’s field of view to shoot him. The family reportedly intends to sue the offending officers.

Fitzgibbon is further claiming that the officers, after having shot him with non-lethal bullets, refused to take him to the hospital so that he could receive treatment for his wounds. Fitzgibbon claimed he was swollen and bleeding. He said that, rather than providing him with help, the officer who shot him stomped on him repeatedly and reported to his superior that he was resisting arrest.

Fitzgibbon has had previous run-ins with the law due to alleged criminal behavior. In 2018, he, alongside an accomplice, was charged for attempted murder after a shooting incident on Iguana Street.