Belize Defence Force captain found hanging in his cell

BELMOPAN, Belize– The Belize Defence Force (BDF) captain, who was awaiting trial for violating a restraining order, has been found dead in his cell.

Captain Damacio Coc, 33, was found hanging from a bed sheet inside his cell in the Tango Ten section of the prison facility on Sunday, the BDF has confirmed.

He is the second BDF member to have allegedly committed suicide and had been awaiting trial since August 25 for violating a restraining order.

Virgilio Murillo, the chief executive officer of the Kolbe Foundation, a non-profit agency dedicated to helping inmates and their families, providing rehabilitation and counseling, said, “unfortunately, we had an officer committing suicide by hanging himself in his cell with a sheet.”

He said the discovery was made because security officers had made two previous visits as part of prison procedures and policies.

“It was during the 10.30 am (local time) check the guards noticed that he had a white sheet covering his wicket, preventing the guards from seeing inside his cell. A guard would not ignore things like that.

“It is against the prison rules for prisoners to close off the view of prison guards into their cells. That’s illegal. That’s against policy or rules. So when the guard saw that, he found a way to part the white sheet from the wicket, and he took a peek inside the cel,l and that was when he saw the inmate hanging,” Murillo added.

Murillo said that Captain Coc had been on remand for a month and showed no signs of suicidal tendencies during his incarceration at the facility.

“This is why it caught everybody by surprise: earlier that morning, two officers interacted with him briefly. One officer asked him if he was OK, and he said everything was OK. “

Murillo said that every prison officer who may have interacted with him during his short stay never picked up on anything amiss.

“So there were no tell-tale signs, so when they found out this happened, it kind of shocked .”