Audrey Matura-Shepherd
Tyson Rodriguez was killed in Placencia on the twenty-second of November. At the onset, police issued a dubious bulletin saying that Rodriguez’s body was found floating in the water. This is after he had been handcuffed and placed in the pan of a police vehicle. Tonight, a high ranking police officer has been charged and arraigned for his murder. Forty-one year old Julio Shal is a Sergeant in the Police Department and in fact second in command at the Placencia Sub-Formation. Shal now finds himself on the other end of the law; he is one of the three officers involved in Rodriguez’s murder. The criminal charge came following an internal investigation by the Professional Standards Branch when the circumstances under which Rodriguez lost his life came into question. Rodriguez was detained by the Placencia police for an aggravated burglary that occurred in the peninsula involving a retired couple. The officers reported that he drowned, but a post mortem revealed that Rodriguez died after inhaling sand. News Five spoke today with Audrey Matura-Shepherd, who is the attorney for the Rodriguez family.
Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Attorney for Rodriguez Family
“The family is happy. But not happy because someone died and because someone was burglarized, robbed and beaten—happy because they feel that for the first time in a long time in this country, the police had the audacity to investigate one of their own. And not only investigate, they cooperated with the family. And I say with the family because as the attorney, I know they have been in contact with us and cooperating with us and providing information. So at this point, we don’t have anything to say against. But this is what we need to say; that for the first time, police have gone all out to do an investigation and as a result, Sgt. Julio Shal has been arrested and charged. To that what the mother has commented to me is that yes; one down and two more to go. Why do we say that is because Sgt. Shal did not act on his own. We know that there are at least two other police officers. But we will not take the law into our hands, we will leave the police to do their work. When you see the area where they said he jumped out, they made it seem as if it was inaccessible so they couldn’t run after him and apprehend him. Our information is that that’s not how it happened. They took him to that area, beat him, killed him there. Two security guards heard the noise and came in the area to see what is happening. It is not…I mean like half of what was said isn’t true and they tried to make it seem as though these people just found this body far from it. As you all now know, he never drowned. He was beaten and he was asphyxiated when his face was pushed in sand and he inhaled sand. That is a cruel death. No matter how you want to convict him, no matter what you want to say about him, that is a cruel death. And at the hands of the police, it is one of the worst things that can happen to this country. The couple in the Placencia that has been burglarized and beaten and everything, she wants them to know that if in anyway there is proof that her son was involved, she personally apologizes to the family; that is not the way she raise her son, she would never defend any wrong he did; she really feels bad about anything—she was not in the country when it all happened. And she believes that if her son is guilty, the police should have arrested, charged him taken the evidence to court, convict him and imprison him. at the end of the day, she is absolutely outraged that they would just kill him because the police cannot take the law into their own hands.”
With Shol removed, the acting deputy in command at the Placencia sub-formation is Corporal Daniel Martinez. Two constables, who were with Shal on the night of the incident, are expected to be charged.
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