7 News Belize

Two Charged For GunHeist
posted (February 14, 2019)
Police have arrested and charged 2 men for the burglary at the Victor L Bryant gun store on Chetumal Boulevard in Belize City.

Thieves broke in on Tuesday morning and cleaned out the gun warehouse, making off with a huge cache of weapons, including rifles, shotguns and handguns, and several thousand live rounds of ammunition.

But, in just a few hour, sharp police work led the cops to retrieve 18 of those stolen weapons and 4,900 live rounds of ammunition, which were stashed at different hiding spots around the city.

Well, police say that two of the thieves who broke in are 21 year-old Randy Chambers, and 20 year-old Selvin Linarez. They were arraigned today on charges of burglary and keeping unlicensed firearms.

We'll tell you about their arraignment shortly, but we start with the latest update on the investigation from police. They told us that their check of gun dealer Phillip Gallati's inventory indicates that 2 weapons, and several hundred live rounds of ammunition are still missing:

ASP Alejandro Cowo - OC, CIB Belize City
"On yesterday's date, 2 of the persons who were in the burglary were charged, namely Randy Chambers, 21 year-sold from Police Street. And then, you have Selvin Linarez, 20 years from Ebony Street. Both of them were charged jointly for the crime of burglary, and both of them were charged jointly for keeping unlicensed firearm. And then, Selvin Linzarez was additionally charged with 5 counts of kept firearm without a gun license."

Reporter
"Have 2 two persons cooperated with police beyond taking to you all to where these weapons were stashed?"

ASP Alejandro Cowo
"Well, that is part of the investigation that we are still dealing with, and at this moment, the information that they had provided to us, which led to the recovery of the said firearms and said ammunition."

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"I said in my last brief that I would be writing to Mr. Gallaty and that has been done. Mr. Gallaty was served yesterday with that letter and he is being given one week to respond as to why his gun dealer license should not be revoked. Once that respond is received, I will review it and as I've said before if he cannot provide satisfactory reason as to why the gun license should not be revoked, then I am going to exercise my descretion given to me under the firearms act to revoke his gun licensed."

Reporter
"Has there been an officer to investigate Mr. Gallaty's operation? what has been the result of that reporet?"

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"I am not going to go into specifics, but I would just go as far as to say that the investigation has proven that there are some irregularities and those irregularities has been highlighted in the letter that he was sent and he is now given due process. Because the law is that while you have a discretion to exercise, such discretion should not be exercise arbitrarily and so you must ensure that due process occur. So he is now being given an opportunity to respond to the letter and say why, considering the cercumstances his gun licensed should not be revoked."

Reporter
"And the inventory?"

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"From what we have gathered so far I think a total of two firearms are still outstanding and just over 700 rounds are still missing."

Reporter
"When you say outstanding they are still on the streets, these 2 guns and several hundred rounds?"

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"Yes, they may still be on the streets."

Randy Chambers and Selvin Linarez were arraigned today on the offense of burglary before Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts-Anderson. Linarez was separately arraigned on 5 counts of keeping an unlicensed firearm for several of the weapons police say he had hidden on Ebony Street.

Both men were also arraigned on 8 additional counts of keeping an unlicensed firearm for weapons they stashed at a location in the Belama Phase 4 area.

Court documents indicate that the cache of weapons they have been charged for have a total value of just under 33 thousand dollars.

They pleaded not guilty to the offenses, and they were remanded to the Belize Central Prison until April 16th, 2019.

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