Email

Print

And, tonight, the third issue is the video of the Rivers shooting which police have released. It shows a tense standoff - with guns drawn on one side and machete in hand on the other. Jules Vasquez found that police only kept escalating an already dangerous situation:

The video released by police shows four officers cornering 24 year old Emil Rivers on a verandah. At least two of the officers have their pistols drawn. Rivers has a machete - and both the police and bystanders are telling him to put it down.

Rivers is mentally ill and armed with a machete - and cornered by police who are justifiably afraid of his machete - which he refuses to relinquish. The situation is very dangerous for all parties.

But, other than threatening him with the use of lethal force - the police tried no other intervention - just constantly escalating threats.

One officer on the side does not have a weapon and is trying to use a pole to take away the machete.

But the guns trained on him are the constant:

PC Sheldon Arzu then fires a warning shot - and then another officer escalates with a chair:

And then with Rivers doing nothing other than protesting verbally, PC Sheldon Arzu fires the shot that hits him at almost point blank range.

And with Rivers crying out but still holding the machete, a second shot.

Arzu continues with the abusive language as he puts Rivers in cuffs. The Commissioner says he doesn't want to judge:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I will not say if he is in the wrong at this time, I have viewed the video, I have my opinion of him and PSB currently has control of the matter. I do not want to say or do anything to influence the investigation that is being done by PSB."

Reporter:
"How does ACP Romero go from stating publicly that the man was shot in the leg to him being in the hospital bed with a gunshot wound to the abdomen?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Perhaps Mr Romero was misinformed because from the inception when the thing happened, I know it was in the stomach."

Jules Vasquez:
"But sir why does the police report have a knowing misrepresentation, it says that PC Arzu, this is the internal report, shot him in the legs twice, or shot after him in the legs twice, I'm saying that there is purposeful misrepresentation of the facts perpetuated by Mr Romero, this is worrying trend that brings the entire story into doubt."

"What I'm seeing here is a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth from the police department."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I don't think so and I hope I'm right but I believe that Mr Romero was misinformed. I did not speak to Romero before he had that press brief with you all, I don't know what information he got, but from the incident happened, I was briefed by the Southern regional commander and he briefed me that the young man was shot in the stomach."

Jules Vasquez:
"Do you see how it throws the whole narrative into question?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Certainly."

The officer firing the gun and the one who hurled expletives and shouted constantly at a mentally ill man is PC Sheldon Arzu. He was convicted of wrongfully killing a civilian in a police station in 2005.

But how was a convicted killer cop allowed to reenlist:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"He was enlisted under the previous administration."

Jules Vasquez:
"But you are the commissioner of police, you control the enlistment."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Mr Saldivar, at the end of the day, I don't want to go into the whole semantics or whatever because if you are a - hypothetically - a convicted murderer and someone comes to you and attacks you, is it right to say because you are a convicted murder you must not do anything? I don't think that should be the case, we must look at everything based on the facts that exist. I rather leave this until the investigation is done, whatever PSB decides then we'll go by that."

Jules Vasquez:
"But I'm just asked, you were the police commissioner when he was reenlisted. Did you look at it and say, hmm, convicted for murder in a police station while on the job? I can't do this, minister."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Of course yes, at that particular time he was enlisted as a special constable with the tourism police. And then subsequently, the minister had requested that he be given a regulation number. Obviously I would oppose it."

Jules Vasquez:
"Did you oppose it?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Of course I did, I'm not going to go into much details with that but I will say to you I opposed it and from there the rest is history."

We note that this happened on Saturday after Rivers escaped from police custody. And why was he in custody? Today the commissioner said, quote, "he had assaulted Inspector Rosado who is the officer in charge of Bella Vista with a huge butcher knife, almost killing him." Well, we can say that's a rather dramatic embellishment. According to the police report, on Friday, Inspector Rosado saw Rivers with a large knife and instructed him to hand it over. Rivers refused and Rosado tried to subdue him - which led to a struggle. The report says this led to "injuries" and his cell phone was damaged. Other officers ran to the aid of Rosado, and they were able to subdue Rivers and take away the knife.