On Saturday, September sixth, Police discovered a grenade in an abandoned building on Banak Street. Just four days after, on the tenth of September, when the city was buzzing with the celebrations, police discovered another grenade. The second dangerous device was discovered on Mayflower Street in an overgrown lot. Police say tips led them to both grenades, and insist that neither was intended for use during the September Celebrations. Today, our News Five team got the Police version of events during a press briefing this morning, and also a report from B.D.F. bomb expert, Brigadier General David Jones, who was called in to Mayflower Street on Wednesday. Mike Rudon has that story.
Mike Rudon, Reporting
This very small device, relatively harmless-looking, inspires more fear than most large guns. It was found on September tenth on Mayflower Street. Police say that about half an hour after it was placed in an empty lot, they got a call from a source and responded to the scene.
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster, Deputy Commander, Eastern Division
Edward Broaster
“This is the second grenade that we’ve discovered within a week, and we are working with the community, with others who are embracing the campaign ‘Not in My City’ to recover more grenades off the streets of Belize City. Also in that seizure we discovered a point thirty-eight revolver which we seized as well. The area where we found this grenade is an empty lot, it’s overgrown and the grenade was found under some bushes near a fence.”
B.D.F. Commander, Brigadier General David Jones, was notified sometime after ten a.m. that there was a grenade in the Mayflower Street area. He responded to the scene and identified the grenade as an M-twenty-six US Army type American grenade.
Brig. Gen. David Jones, Commander, B.D.F.
“I left the Memorial Park area and I went over to Mayflower Street where it was an abandoned lot where I found the grenade after it was notified to the police that the grenade was in that area. I went to the area and I saw the plastic bag and after touching the plastic bag, I realized it was a grenade – just from the touch, I knew it was a grenade inside. So I took the object to a safe area and carefully took the plastic bag wrappers that wrapped the grenade and after inspection revealed that it was an M-twenty-six American type grenade that has been used by the US army some years before and I believe it is still in service.”
Police had previously told us that the device found on September sixth was a British grenade, but according to Jones, this grenade and the one found last Saturday on Banak Street are both American made grenades – though different. Unlike the Banak Street grenade which was an apple-shaped grenade, this one is referred to as a lemon grenade. Both are very real and dangerous, even more so because of the level of corrosion.
Brig. Gen. David Jones
“No idea at this moment how that could have reached here, but it is a possibility it is from somewhere in Central America because some of those grenades went missing in Honduras, some are about in El Salvador and they probably could get it from across Guatemala as well. But those grenades are pretty old, they are in terrible condition in regards to corrosion around the body, but they are still fully functional. If the pins are pulled and thrown, they will function.”
The Police Department has taken some flak because of their cavalier handling of the first grenade found. Brigadier-General Jones echoed those sentiments.
David Jones
Brig. Gen. David Jones
“If you watch the news last week, it wasn’t the bomb expert that actually picked up the grenade initially; it was Mister Broaster from the police department. That is not the way it should be done where you would go in, pick up the device and actually put it back in. we have certain protocols in place. I guess he had his reasons why he went in personally to do it. But the protocol is that whenever there is such a device, there should be cordoned, people should be a distance away before the expert do come in. Based on what the device is, then the B.D.F. bomb expert will be wearing the particular clothing and using the right equipment particularly gloves on the hands to get forensic evidence as what I did yesterday. The grenade should be handled safely, out of the eye of anyone or the media shouldn’t be directly in front of it to actually see the device because if it does function, whoever is around would be hurt or probably be killed.”
Reporter
“So as it relates to that find that day, what was the danger of Mister Broaster doing that in the sense of the utility of the one found then?”
Brig. Gen. David Jones
“Well that grenade was in a more dangerous state than this one. So it was pretty risky what occurred because on inspection of that grenade, I noted that near the fly off lever, the metal that holds the fly off lever was corroded. So even though the fly off lever was on it and it was taped up, it is very likely that that grenade could still have functioned without having to pull the safety pin, but they wouldn’t know that because they don’t have the expertise. So after inspection, it was risky, it was too dangerous for anyone to remove that grenade without the training to do it.”
The Police Department have released little real details on the players involved in the grenades discovered, but maintain that intelligence indicates that there was no intention to use those grenades to disrupt any September celebration event. Mike Rudon for News Five.
There have been no arrests in connection with the discovery of the grenades, though Police today told us that they have questioned several persons.
View the full article