Again, Melendez's attorney says he is not in hiding - and today the Police Minister Kareem Musa weighed in on the events. Does he believe that sergeant Makin should be charged?
In short he doesn't. He too spoke about the broader context of what we saw on that video clip - but says he did push for an internal investigation into Makin's action but also re-iterated that police are looking for Melendez:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"When I saw the video for the first time like with the rest of Belize I was certainly disturbed because if it is one thing that our administration has been extremely adamant about it is that officers must be accountable for their behavior and they must not use excessive force in detaining individuals and so traditionally as you might know my instant reaction is that this requires immediate action from professional standards branch in terms of an investigation. And so even without the complainant going in to say that he, or rather the suspect in this case going in to say that he was the victim of excessive force, I requested of the commissioner that they get process standards branch to do an investigation into it and so that is currently taking place."
"Now let me say this point blank that if it were a random arbitrary act by this officer, say for instance he had a personal issue with this individual and he would just go to him and act out like this because of a personal issue nothing to do with a chase or anything like that. I personally do not care if he is mother Teresa's grandson. It is my expectation that the professional standards branch would take immediate action and do an investigation and let the chips fall where they may."
"Now since then we have learnt that two minors have gone in to the San Pedro Police station to give statements One is thirteen and one is 15, these minors it is not my belief that they are not making this scenario up they were being chased by a number of individuals."
"And so to my understanding the individual has not gone back into the police station I believe he was given a medico legal form and he went to the hospital since then he has not gone back in and the police are looking for him because there is an investigation from that angle, but also a parallel investigation by professional standards branch to see if that type of response was even warranted. Again you look at all scenarios, where were the other young men because it was not just this suspect alone that was acting were they nearby could they have pounced on the officer. Consider the fact that the officer was by himself, the information that he got I am told was that the individuals had weapons and so he had to pull his firearm and so you have to look at everything in its entirety and so while traditionally I would have a knee jerk reaction and say we need to have disciplinary proceedings immediately it is something that I think we need to look at the entire picture to see what exactly took place and see where the investigation goes and what sanctions follow if any."
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