The officer died shortly after being transferred to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), and today, four days after the incident, police are still trying to ascertain the motive for what Maureen Leslie, Officer in Command at the Eastern Division Police Station, described as ?the senseless act.?

At about mid-morning on Tuesday, police escorted the prime suspect to the Belize City Magistrate?s Court; meanwhile, other members of the Police Department were preparing to travel north, to Corozal Town, to lay to rest yet another colleague.

Nedir Esner Raymundo was laid to rest today, after funeral services at 2:00 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Corozal Town.

On that same day, spectators swarmed Bishop Street, where the Belize City Magistrate?s Court is located, as the Crimes Investigation Branch (CIB) escorted Belize City resident, 23-year-old Chadrick Allison DeBride of Ross Pen Road, to the court in handcuffs. Within 20 minutes, he was transferred to the Hattieville Prison, where he was remanded on a murder charge for Raymundo?s killing.

On Friday night, November 26, Police Constable #956, Euwin Armstrong, Sr., 27, was shot to death near the Farmer?s Market. He was shot in his head and face, and died on the spot.

CIB Inspector, Oscar Puga, said the police don?t believe that they are being targeted, even though he informed the newspaper today, in a media conference at the Queen Street Police Station, that they have since received ?threats? from a number of anonymous callers on their 922 number. Puga did not go into detail about the nature of the threats, but while he maintained that they don?t believe that the police are being targeted, they are taking the calls seriously.

Amandala was at the scene of the incident on Christmas Eve, but people were reluctant to speak with us about what had happened. Today, four days later, they still refuse to speak. One eyewitness, who claimed that he had received death threats, said he was too afraid to speak.

Meanwhile, a group of construction workers, who were across from where the incident happened, told us what they heard.

One man, who told us that he had his back turned, recalled hearing a single shot, and by the time he looked around, he saw a man fall to the ground, but he claimed that he could see nothing else from where he was working.

Another worker we spoke with said that he only heard the single shot, as well.

?It happened so fast!? said the man, who said he was busy working on a building across the canal side when the shooting happened.

According to a police report of Friday, December 24, PC Raymundo had just exited Dale?s Barbershop, at #67 West Canal, after getting his hair trimmed, when he met his untimely death.

Mushae McDonald, who was the first person to assist with transferring the officer to the KHMH, told the newspaper that he was driving a Government vehicle and, being curious, stopped to see what was happening when he saw a crowd. He noticed the officer lying on the ground, and he was still alive, he said.

McDonald said that he couldn?t understand why the police who were on the scene refused to rush the wounded officer to the hospital, especially since he was a cop.

McDonald said that he tried to take the officer to the KHMH, with the assistance of another man, but an ambulance intercepted him halfway to the hospital, near Rene?s Store on Cemetery Road, and then took the victim to the hospital.

He was still alive then, recalled McDonald. He said that as the ambulance sped away, he hoped and prayed for the best, as the injuries the officer had sustained were severe, since he had been shot in the head.

McDonald said that his shirt and pants were bloody, and the Government vehicle, belonging to his workplace, was bloody and had to be washed out.

According to police, their investigations are ongoing, and they are exploring several possible motives for the shooting, including robbery, as a chain the deceased had on him at the time of the crime is still missing. Another angle they are exploring is whether the officer?s shooting was a case of ?mistaken identity.?

Police Constable Nedir Raymundo was born in Corozal and had just graduated from the Police Training Academy in March of 2003, as part of Squad #78, the same squad as the late Euwin Armstrong?s.

He had no children and was never married. Nedir is survived by his mother, Guadalupe Raymundo; father, Victor Sanchez; and sister, Araina Sanchez.

Chadrick Allison DeBride is scheduled to reappear in court on January 27, 2005.

DeBride was arrested and charged in November of 2003 for the robbery of the Radisson Fort George Hotel, but due to the withdrawal of eyewitnesses, the case was dismissed, police said.

DeBride had also been detained in past years for several other offenses within the city, said Inspector Puga, but he is not aware of any convictions on the suspect?s record.

His arrest, said Puga, was possible because of the help of callers on the 911 and 922 numbers.

(We note that 911 is strictly an emergency hotline, while 922 is the Crime Stoppers hotline, which police encourage people to use if they wish to provide information to assist in crimes investigation.)