Santa Elena Murder Linked to Gang Retaliation

Investigators out west say the murder of Anthony Smith was gang-related. On Sunday, a gunman on a motorcycle targeted Smith as he sat outside a restaurant with his family in Santa Elena Town. The 30-year-old’s murder came only weeks after gang boss, David Galindo’s slaying, which triggered a crackdown on gang elements. However, despite the increase in police presence, Smith was gunned down for his alleged involvement in Galindo’s murder. Yesterday, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams weighed in on the homicide and whether police could have prevented the bloodshed.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Anthony Smith was one of the persons who was suspected to have been involved in the murder of David Galindo. We knew yes that he was a target but we cannot and will not be security guard for no criminal. It cannot be that because we know that you are a target, you are accused of killing somebody, now the police will now mind you. It’s like rewarding criminals for doing wrong.”

Reporter: But you did that with the Meighan brothers on Banak Street, they had a checkpoint in front of their house.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Mr. Vasquez, there you go again trying to mislead the public. The checkpoint that was on Banak Street was put in place during Mr. Whiley’s tenure as Commissioner of Police, not during my tenure. When I became commissioner, I saw the need, it was an artery that was being used by persons within that area to commit crime, I decided to leave it there. When I saw that they were doing things and they were shielding behind the police, I removed it from there. We need to be accurate in our reporting. Don’t say things that you believe the public is going to want to hear so that you can increase your audience. We must be real and we must be responsible. So again, just to completely answer your question. We are not going to provide security for no criminal or no person who believe are out there perpetrating criminal acts and expect that the police is going to protect them. That is not going to happen.”

Williams denied that the killing undermined the police’s efforts to restore the fractured sense of citizen security in the district.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “While there are certain things that we want to get done, it is going to take a little time. I have met with the people of San Ignacio, Santa Elena, I have explained to them what we are doing and that process is underway. We are still hoping that the police station for Santa Elena is going to be completed within the one month time frame that we had given the public and we will be able to house that police station with police officers. We have already got a new vehicle that should be deployed to the area by Monday for the officers to be able to carry out their responsibilities. In the meantime, we have GI3 in the area, they’re doing the gang investigations and you know that the gang investigations are not an overnight investigation. These are investigations that take at least three to six months to be able to gather all the information to convince a court beyond a reasonable doubt that these people are gang members. In the time being, the police officers from SPU and the San Ignacio operation teams are conducting daily operations. We’re detaining people for 48 hours. After 48, we have to let them go. We cannot keep them beyond 48 hours. So they are going to look for that opportunity again to do what they need to do, but we have to make sure that we do our part also to prevent them from doing so. So the police are doing as much as we can and we continue to do so until we can get that police station in place in Santa Elena and staff it with police officers, giving them resources to be able to patrol that area. And even when that is done, we’re still going to make sure that we continue to look at the past investigations in terms of the murders, we look at the gang investigations, all again with a view to make sure we can interdict those persons who are involved in this back and forth shooting in the San Ignacio.”

Galindo’s murder also triggered an investigation into several gang members threatening medical staff at the Santa Elena Community Hospital.