Shooting victims hurt while trying to assist police in their investigation

Two teenagers who were the victims of a shooting incident on northern Ambergris Caye are upset and making allegations against the police department. The two making the allegations are 18-year-old Christian Espat and 20-year-old Brian Espat, both fishermen of San Pedro Town. The allegations follow injuries received while in handcuffs as they headed by boat to the area in which they were shot at on Sunday April 13th. While the injuries are one aspect that has the brothers upset, they are not happy with the treatment they received at the hands of the police. After they took our report they asked us if we could take them to the area of the shooting so they can process the scene and we voluntarily agreed to go with them. Little did we know that they were going to handcuff us as if we did the shooting," said Brian.

Brian further claims that they were taken onboard a vessel captained by members of the Belize Coast Guard and was accompanied by officers attached to the San Pedro Police Department. "They had no knowledge about how to navigate through the water. In fact they did not know how to get out of the channel and while going through the channel we almost capsized after a large wave hit the boat. The force of the wave hit us, almost flipping us overboard. I was handcuffed to my little brother and he got flung one way and I got flung the other way. The force broke the handcuff and injured my hand. My brother [Christian] got hurt in the back after he hit the rear of the boat [stern] and from the constant pounding of the waves. He was obviously seriously hurt because he was unable to move," recounted Brian Espat. He explained that the captain of the boat continued navigating in very rough seas which Brian believes worsened his brother's injuries. "I indicated to the officers that my brother was hurt, and they just laughed at us."

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