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Today, Minister Musa said that the police acted on the only report that they got - which was about the door which one of the gang members punched in. He says the doctor chose not to report the rest to police, but to the media:

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"When this incident occurred, I believe there was only one report that was made, one of damage to property. Right away, the following day, the individual was charged, taken to the magistrate and fined as far as I'm aware, $1,500."

"There was no other report of threats issued to the medical officers. And so when that news broke many days later, I think it was Jules that broke that news, it wasn't as though the doctors and nurses had complained to the police that something had happened and they did not respond."

"And so when it came to light that instead of going to the police, they went to Channel 7 to provide this information, obviously the police had to take very swift action, Cabinet, took swift action because this is absolutely out of order for a situation like that to have occurred at a public hospital."

Jules Vasquez
"But the reason they didn't make a police complaint, according to them, is the last time it happened with the same individual, they made a complaint and nothing came of it."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Yeah, I heard you say that and I heard one of the doctors say that, but is there a police report that they made?"

"I will check into that personally because like I said, when this incident happened, there was no information to police that it went to that length. There was only a complaint made about damage to property and police responded immediately and charged the individual."

Jules Vasquez
"But you see what's the real pressure point on this, whether the police fled or had to leave to respond to a stabbing, which is factual that they did go to a stabbing, they're in this situation because the entire San Ignacio Santa Elena and 21 surrounding villages have one vehicle, so they had one vehicle."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Yeah, there were two other vehicles that were being serviced that had repairs. One was transmission, I believe, and the other one had other mechanical. problems. So yes, I totally agree with you, Jules, that that was a vulnerability for San Ignacio at that moment."

"And so adjustments have been made. I believe the Ministry of Tourism, BTB, will be donating a pickup truck. I think they're purchasing it today. And our ministry has already gotten approval to purchase another."

"So they will be getting two brand new vehicles assigned to San Ignacio. But in the meantime, we do need to have police presence on that side of town, specifically because we have the closure of the Hawksworth Bridge."

"And so we've already identified a temporary station, which we are retrofitting. It will take within a month that we'll have that station up and running. But in the meantime, we have deployed MIT and SPU personnel, additional support and resources to the San Ignacio area, again, in response to the spike in crime happening out west."

Jules Vasquez
"But you can accept criticisms that these are the right things to do, but you're doing it after a terrible event has happened and after there were 12 armed robberies in nine months plus the murder of a businessman. It seems reactive and it does not seem proactive and it indicates, well I understand the problems are complex, it indicates that leadership does not have tactical preemptive measures to avert situations like this, even when there were 12 armed robberies in nine months culminating in a murder on the Thursday, which was June 6th."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"It comes down to a matter of resources, Jules. Unfortunately, when you look at the budget each year and you start to examine the Ministry of Home Affairs you realize that nine out of ten dollars is spent on salaries."

"The rest of it is spent on the fuel. We have a high fuel bill as well. And so there is very little room for us to purchase new vehicles."

Jules Vasquez
"It is not a lack of money, it is a lack of identification of security vulnerability."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"No, we have all of the vulnerabilities, Jules. And like I said, there's probably nobody better than you to go into every single police station and say, well, that condition is not working. You know, I'm sure you could do a very wonderful expose on that, Jules."

"And so it does come down to resources, it does come down to allocation of resources."

Jules Vasquez
"But did citizen security is a priority?"

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Of course it is, of course it is, Jules. Citizen security has to be the priority."