Commissioner of Police says peace is hard work after latest spate of shootings

Posted: Tuesday, May 2, 2023. 9:07 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: Dating back to Thursday, there have been four shooting incidents in Belize City, resulting in three murders and an alleged manslaughter.

Discounting the untimely death of Charles Canton on Friday evening, the murders of Shamar Cabral and Sylvain Swift on Thursday afternoon and evening, and Adrian Pook on Sunday morning, all took place in known gang-affiliated areas and the Police Department fears a resurgence of gang activity after a months-long lull attributed to the work of the Leadership Intervention Unit (LIU) and late director William Dawson.

Commissioner of Police Chester Williams briefed the press between intervention sessions with the George Street and Police Street cliques this afternoon: “We are not naïve to believe that because of the efforts that we are doing through LIU that the gang problem will just disappear in its entirety and so quickly. We do operate on a daily basis, anticipating that there will be occasions where there will be flare-ups. And it cannot be that we take these incidents and cast away the program or assume that the program is not working.”

He added, “But what we must do and what we have been doing when we do have these flare-ups is to see how we can calm the storm and navigate our way through to ensure that we can restore peace within the different neighborhoods, and that is what we have been doing. I know that there are going to be some people who will say that the program is not working, but believe you me, and I am sure that you, as members of the media, could also attest to the fact that the crime, particularly gang-related incidents, is down.”

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