Cody Castillo, Crawfordville, Florida dad to be shot dead by off duty Bahamas police officer, Berneil Pinder after cop said he feared for his life when line worker got in his car and charged towards cop after bar fight erupting.
A Florida father to be has died after he was shot dead by an off duty police officer in the Bahamas over the weekend.
Cody Castillo, 31, was killed on the evening of Saturday, March 21, outside Da Plantation Bar and Grill, a popular beach spot in Nassau following a bar brawl erupting at the venue.
The incident led to the Royal Bahamas Police Force saying the officer acted out of self-defense. The U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas said Castillo was unarmed and that the officer allegedly followed him to his vehicle before shooting him according to the dailymail.
Bahamas police allege they were responding to threat of imminent violence
The Bahamas Press identified him as Superintendent Berneil Pinder of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Matters became violent ‘when an altercation began inside and subsequently continued outside,’ Bahama Police stated.
‘During the incident, one of the individuals involved entered a vehicle and allegedly drove it in a threatening manner toward the officer,’ the Police Force said. ‘Fearing for his life, the officer drew his service weapon and fired a single shot at the driver, who sustained fatal injuries.’
Friends and family described Castillo—a Huntsville, Texas native living in Crawfordville, Florida—as a ‘kind, gentle’ man who was not prone to anger.
Calls for justice for US worker
A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas called on the government to make sure the victim gets justice in the case. The officer to date has faced no charges in the shooting.
In a Tuesday update, Minister Wayne Munroe confirmed that a criminal investigation had officially been opened in the shooting. The official stated if the investigation ceded criminal charges then the officer involved would face charges.
According to a GoFundMe, Castillo, an electric lineman, was in the Bahamas working to upgrade the transmission and distribution network of Bahamas Power and Light on behalf of N.C firm, the Pike Corporation.
‘Cody was working to support his family with Pike Electric in the Bahamas,’ the GoFundMe stated. ‘Then, in a moment that changed everything, Cody’s life was taken by senseless violence while he was working abroad.’
The GoFundMe said that Castillo and his wife, Makayla, were expecting their first child in August. He was planning to fly back home this week but ‘never made it back home.’
The fatality represents the third such killing by armed off-duty officers this year in the Bahamas.
