Photo: Two police officers (center) charged

by Charles Gladden

ORANGE WALK, Wed. Mar. 29, 2023

It has been confirmed that two of the four police officers who were involved in an incident which led to the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Dyandre Chee, a father of one, which occurred on Saturday, March 25, in Orange Walk Town, were charged for his death.

In Tuesday’s issue of the Amandala, it was reported that at around 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, four police officers of the QRT (Quick Response Team) responded to the alleged firing of shots on Riverside Street, and when they arrived they reportedly saw three motorcycles, each with a driver and passenger riding pillion, fleeing the area, which prompted the officers to follow in pursuit.

There have been claims by the officers that shots were fired from the direction of one of the motorcycles in front of them, which caused them to return fire and fatally injured Chee in the process, but there are reports that, in fact, no shots were fired, and that it was the “backfiring” of Chee’s motorcycle that likely caused a sound similar to gunshots.

The Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, even told local reporters earlier this week, “The investigators have interviewed a number of persons and recorded statements from them, but other than the police officers, no one else is saying that they heard any shots fired at the police or they saw anyone firing at the police … For now, we are operating under the perception that it could be that, as the young men have said, that the motorcycle that they were on had the muffler removed and because of the removal of the muffler it makes a lot of noise, when you gear down, it will make a backfire sound and as a part of their investigation, I had directed this morning that Mr. Jones take the motorcycle to a mechanic to verify if in fact the motorcycles would be capable of making such noise. That was done; the mechanic do confirm that the motorcycle do in fact make those noise …”

A postmortem examination was conducted, and it revealed that Chee died from internal bleeding due to firearm-related injuries to his arteries and liver.

In Tuesday’s article, it was mentioned that when officers canvassed the scene, they discovered two .223 expended shells as well as a 9mm shell. During Monday’s press briefing, the Commissioner of Police confessed that the expended shells could be those of the officers. However, the officers have claimed that none of them was armed with a nine-millimeter pistol.

Commissioner Williams said that the shell casings would be handed over to the National Forensic Science Service Ballistics Unit to determine if they were discharged by any licensed weapon or were fired by a department-issued firearm.

On the day after the press conference, it was confirmed by the Director of Public Prosecution, Cheryl Lynn Vidal, that charges of murder have been levied on two of the four police officers, Corporal 1463 Esmin Flores and Constable 1862 Salomen Cowo. It is not expected that the other two officers will be charged, as they didn’t fire shots from their police-issued firearms.

However, all four officers are also facing disciplinary charges and will be placed on interdiction.

Flores and Cowo were arraigned on Wednesday in the Magistrate’s Court in Orange Walk, where they were jointly charged with murder. No plea was taken as, due to the nature of the case, an appeal cannot be made at the Supreme Court.

Also, coincidentally on that same day, Wednesday, Chee was laid to rest on in the Orange Walk Cemetery, where reporters interviewed his father, Alberto Chee, who expressed his satisfaction with the decision to charge the two officers.

“That’s great for me. That’s good news that they got charged [with] murder,” he said. “Between the four of them, they [were] supposed to join together and to make a decision not to chase the cyclist, because it’s [an] easy thing to get the license plate of the cycle and deal with them the next day,” he added.

When Chee was asked about the burial of his son, he remarked, “They left me without a son. I don’t have words for that.”

Alberto Chee has also said that he will be seeking legal action against the Police Department for the unlawful killing of his son.

Flores and Cowo will be remanded to the Belize Central Prison until their next court date on July 26 of this year.