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Compol Wanted Man Who Pushed Him to Be Jailed, Criticizes Chief Magistrate's Decision
posted (September 24, 2024)
Last night we told you about Jeron McKay, the 46 year old Belizean American who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after he pushed the Commissioner of Police during the Orange Walk Carnival.

He pleaded guilty and the Chief Magistrate fined him 1,500 dollars because it was his first offense.

Well, the Commissioner of Police isn't happy about that. This morning the the LOVE Morning Show he gave his account of what happened - and stressed the intention of Mckay who grabbed him by the shirt:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Jarod Mackay seems to be a big bad man. He is an Iraqi vet, and I think he wanted to show off himself. But I just maintained my cool."

"He was consuming alcohol from a Belikin bottle. I approached him very nicely and I said to him - you cannot one consuming alcohol in a bottle, and I reached to take the bottle away from him and when I did that, he pushed me away. When he pushed me away, I again said to him that he needed to give me the bottle and this time he grabbed me in my shirt. And I had a nice piece of Rosewood in my hand, a baton, it weighs about 5 pounds, I held myself back, not to use it on him."

"The officer I was with came in between, held unto him and while the officer was holding unto him, he continued to hold on to my shirt, and say, "I want him". I don't know what he wanted me for. But he said he wanted me. I just continued to keep my cool until he was able to let go of my shirt."

"And ahm other officers came and we were able to handcuff him and put him in the vehicle and took him away to the police station."

From there he was brought down to the city for arraignment and trial with his attorney Leeroy Banner.

In the proceedings, the Chief Magistrate did consider sending him to jail, but he said he didn't know it was the commissioner. That was one of the other reasons the Chief granted him a non custodial sentence.

The commissioner took issue with that today:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"But the thing is that he said to the court that he did not know I was the commissioner. It does not matter whether I am the Commissioner or not. I was in my police uniform. So he knew I was a police. That was what was important."

"And if he had done to any police in the states what he did to me, he would not be alive today."

"And he knows that."

That's a dire reading of US law enforcement but it's far from the harshest thing the commissioner had to say. He criticized the decision of the Chief Magistrate to fine and not confine McKay - and once again brought up the case of his close cousin, Inspector Chris Martinez who that same Chief Magistrate sent to prison:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"But I am extremely dissatisfied with the outcome because here we have a situation where Inspector Martinez was charged for beating a person who was accused of shooting his house where his wife and children were and Martinez got five months."

"Now here you have a person who assaulted the Commissioner of Police while doing his job and he just got a slap on the wrist and said pay one thousand five and you go home. You're saying to the public, the criminals per se, you beat the police, we will charge you a little money, send you home, but if the police touch you, we will send the police to jail. It's like a double standard we can we can have that."

Host
"Were these different magistrates?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"The same magistrate. The same magistrate who tried Martinez and who dealt with this matter, so you can't say..... it is the same magistrate dealt with both cases."

We stress that Aaron Flowers was never formally accused or charged for shooting at Christopher Martinez's house. He was detained but police had no evidence to charge him.

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