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This afternoon they were all taken to Belmopan Magistrate's Curt for arraignment - and our news team saw as police did all they could to protect these criminally charged lawmen from the media's lenses:

Jules Vasquez
"Justice for you means a murder charge?"

Noreen Escobar
"Yeah, murder, murder, I done tell Mr. Chester I want murder because that is a murder, everybody say it."

The pleas of a mother in mourning were answered this afternoon when the BDF soldier who killed her son was arraigned for murder. Private Raheem Valencio was the man whose bullet pierced 29-year-old Jessie Escobar's chest in front of his wife and young daughter.

And while no one was able to shield her from that horrific sight, the roughly 17 officers at the court this morning did a good job at obscuring the view of Valencio and the other two men being charged: Corporal Ramon Alcoser and Police Constable Juan Carlos Morales.

The media was forced to stay several feet away - which is not something usually enforced - and the officers ensured the accused men - who were not handcuffed - were rushed in and out of the police van.

Valencio was the first to be arraigned, and after, his attorney, Oscar Selgado spoke about the case.

Oscar Selgado, Attorney
"He is charged with one count of murder and the matter has been adjourned to the 30th of November. There are three police officers in there and they are all charged separately with separate offences. I am not privileged to what the others are charged with because I did not remain in the court. But like I said, Raheem Valencio, the BDF soldier, is charged with one count of murder, he was denied bailed, he is remanded to the Kolbe facility, the court is adjourned to the 30 of November 2021."

"He is composed and this is so because I have taken instructions from him and I have given him some sort of counsel and guidance since yesterday so he is composed."

Reporter:
"Sir did your client show any signs of remorse for what happened?"

Oscar Selgado, Attorney
"I will not venture into those kinds of things because I did not take note to his state of mind as to say remorse or no remorse, I just spoke to him as an attorney and I did not take note of anything else but I am saying he is composed in the sense that he is up, he is strong, and he understands what is ahead of him."

Composed even in the face of the damning video, which his attorney says hasn't been entered as evidence at this time.

Oscar Selgado, Attorney
"As a defense attorney, I will not make any comment as to what I make of the surveillance video because that would be showing my hand and saying what my strategy is. But the video is out in the public but I must say for one to fully appreciate what is on that video, one has to be either a trained attorney, trained ballistic expert, or a trained scenes of crime technician to understand what is in that video, that video is not just a movie, and that video is not in evidence just yet. That video is just a video, until it is tendered in the court, it is evidence, so I wont even comment on it because it's not evidence, it's not before me properly, it's not before the court."

But the family is hoping that the video will be enough for a murder conviction. Escobar's cousin, who - like the media - was barred from entering the courtroom, said she won't be satisfied until the accused men are behind bars.

Rocio Quiroz, Cousin of Deceased
"I really can't describe to you, you know, I'm very hurt. I'm very hurt, I have kids and I'm very hurt. I'm very hurt, it's hard to explain."

"We have no trust in the justice system, we have no trust or respect for the police officers because I'm going to honest with you, you want respect, you don't demand it, you earn it,, although there are a lot of good police officers, I have had encounters with many good police officers but this is too much."

"I cannot speak on behalf of them but trust me, I am not going to sit back and let this blow over like a little breeze because a murder charge is nothing, we want a conviction, because many times we hear that case files go missing and we cannot get a conviction, we want a conviction, I personally am not just satisfied with a murder charge."

And she also wasn't happy with officers hiding the men.

Rocio Quiroz, Cousin of Deceased
"While I was going in, that particular officer stop me from going in which is respect but I would thought that maybe one of you guys could go in there and show the world what's happening but I guess you guys also got denied from going into the courthouse."

"Chester just dih cover up the criminals. You know I'm not against any of these officers that are out here because they're just doing their job but they get orders from Chester, so he's covering up from the criminals and I want to go on record because I am not afraid of Chester, nobody is afraid of Chester, he needs to resign, he needs to step down because he doesn't have balls as a commissioner to stand up for the people."

And to add insult to injury, she feels like the charges levied against Morales and Alcoser - perverting the course of justice with their false police statements - isn't enough.

Rocio Quiroz, Cousin of Deceased
"We want that to be upgraded because you're as guilty as the others. He's the instigator, Mr Morales is an instigator."

And while she's sure Escobar's other relatives would agree with her - she stood alone in the sea of police - because the family thought the arraignment would have been in San Ignacio - whey they sat and waited from this morning.