Belize top cop: Justifiable force used by passenger to kill hijacker of plane

BELMOPAN – Police Commissioner Chester Williams says “it is reasonable to say” that justifiable force was used by the passenger , who shot and killed  Akinyela Taylor, who last Thursday had hijacked a Cessna 208EX Grand Caravan carrying 15 passengers and one pilot.

None of the passengers were fatally wounded, and the three men who were stabbed in the incident are in stable condition. According to authorities, passengers Jair Castaneda and Fitzgerald Brown have been released, while pilot Howell Grange remains hospitalised.

Taylor, an American citizen, was killed when the plane landed at the Philip Goldson International Airport by one of the passengers, who was armed with a licensed gun.

Asked by 5 Great Belize Television as to whether the authorities are considering laying charges against the passenger, the Police Commissioner said “that is not something that is going to be decided by the police.

“But I can tell you from a legal standpoint looking at section 30 of the criminal court, which deals with just abuse of force and harm, it says that a person may use force even to the extreme necessity to kill in certain circumstances. And those circumstances include where it is perceived that one is going to cause grievous by the harm to another”.

Williams said that the force use can be either in defense of yourself or another person and regarding the hijack situation the persons on board that flight where the lives of 14 people were in danger by a knife-wielding man who had already injured three persons on board that flight “it would be reasonable to say that the force used was justified. And so what we are going to do is put the file together and we send to the DPP for final determination”.

Prior to the hijacking of the plane, Taylor is reported to have been involved in several incidents that attracted the police’s attention.

Earlier this month, Taylor caused a disturbance at the Philip Goldson International Airport when he attempted to board a United Airlines flight to the US without a ticket, prompting security to remove him.

After the incident, Taylor tried to enter Mexico but was denied entry there and returned to Belize.

Police said they later found him hiding in an abandoned building in the Corozal Free Zone, but released him afterwards. (CMC)

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