Businessman Allegedly Brandishes Assault Rifle During Heated Altercation on Coastal Road, Investigation Ongoing

Last week we reported on 30-year-old Efrain Rejon, a businessman from Independence Village, Stann Creek District, after being accused of brandishing an assault rifle during an altercation with a road works crew along the Coastal Planes Highway. The incident took place between mile markers 18 and 19, involving Dennis Saragosa, a worker for contractor Imer Hernandez. Saragosa reported that at approximately 3:00 p.m., a towhead with a container barreled through safety cones and signs marking ongoing roadwork, knocking down a barrier and striking a generator belonging to the crew. The driver of the towhead, accompanied by four other men, engaged in a heated argument with the road crew over the damages. The tension escalated when the driver retrieved a metal pipe from his truck, prompting Saragosa to inform him that he was carrying a licensed firearm. Rejon allegedly arrived on the scene in a white Ford Ranger pickup, armed with what appeared to be a high-powered rifle with a scope. Witnesses claim Rejon pointed the weapon at the workers, warning them not to approach him or the truck driver. He allegedly instructed the driver and his team to continue their journey while he remained at the scene for a few minutes, brandishing the rifle before departing. Today Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams answered questions regarding the three-gun licenses obtained by Rejon.  

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “I have already instructed the police not to return any of those weapons to Mr.Rejon and even though the complainants have gone to court and withdrawn the matter we will write to the Firearms and Ammunition Control Board and seek their intervention to have the license revoked.”

Reporter: You had been the one who issued the licenses in the first place, what was your justification to allow Rejon to have these guns.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Again you’re wrong. Some of them he got under me and he also got under the previous commissioner.”

With Rejon’s case as example, the COMPOL reiterated that the owning of multiple gun licenses is not constitutionally wrong and persons cannot be penalized for choosing to have more than one gun. 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police:  “There is nothing in law to say that a person cannot have two, three, four or five guns. I have said to you there is a man who has twenty gun license, none of them were issued by me. None. You all would make an issue of that and even though he has twenty nothing wrong with that. There are a number of persons who have eighteen, nineteen, seventeen and it’s not an issue because there’s nothing in law. So I don’t understand why when there is an incident when a person has more than one gun license you all make an issue out of it. There is nothing in law to prevent any person from having that. A person may have a gun license for hunting, sports hunting. They may have one for farming, they might have one for special protection, they might have for different reason. Some people are gun enthusiasts, some people are collectors, they have guns for different reasons. So we cannot just look at things at the face of it and then we try to impute improper motive on anybody. Maybe parliament should look at that to put a limit in terms of the amount of license a person can have at any given time, that I think would make sense.”