Farmer Says He Was Shot First, Now Faces Charges

Shot on his farm, mourning the loss of his dog, and now remanded to prison. That is the situation facing Pomona cattle farmer Richard Cal, who was arraigned today on three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm. Cal says he fired only after he was shot by men who later identified themselves as police. But while the family waits for answers about why plain-clothes officers were on the property, Cal is now behind bars at the Belize Central Prison. His wife says they are shocked by the charges and worried about his condition as he continues to recover from his injuries.

 

On The Phone: Wife of Richard Cal

“Tuesday, they come for him. Police come arrest him again at home. They have my husband the up and down. We went to the station. Come back, like, you know, up and down. I need my husband foot to get healed. Now Wednesday again, they come for my – no Wednesday, Thursday, sorry about that. Thursday they come for my husband again. While he’s resting, while he’s recovering. They come again, took him to the police station. They say he get charged for three counts of aggravated assault. Today he get arraigned and he get remanded. So I really don’t like what is happening here because the condition where my husband is, it’s really rough. He cannot move how he wants. He cannot use bathroom by himself.”

 

Shane Williams

“Have they said why they were on the farm in the first place?”

 

Wife of Richard Cal

“We don’t hear nothing from the three guys that went and went to the farm that day. Nothing. We don’t hear nothing from the police what they went or nothing. We don’t get nothing from them. My fear right now for my husband is that they will take him to the Hattieville prison by himself. Who will be there to assist him? Who will be there to take him to the bathroom? Because he cannot do that on his own. He cannot elevate his foot how he wanted. That is my fear. I don’t know why they can’t understand his condition. And we want answer, we want justice for what happened to him. Not only to him, for his dog as well, and as for us, the family. Right now, my four kids. They can’t go to school. They canceled the school because they had to pay for their dad’s surgery at the hospital.” 

 

Police still have not explained why they were on Richard Cal’s farm. Today, he pleaded not guilty to three firearm-related assault charges and was remanded until November seventeenth.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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