Software company founder John McAfee, who is wanted for questioning in a shooting death in Belize, spoke last week at the official presentation of equipment ceremony that took place at the San Pedro Police Station in Belize.(Photo: Sofia Munoz, Ambergris Today Online/AP)
John McAfee, the software creator identified as a "person of
interest" in a shooting death in Belize, said from hiding that he does
not intend to turn himself in to police, describing the Central American
country as a "pirate haven" governed by brutality and fear.
McAfee made his comments in emails to the Associated Press and Wired magazine.
Police
have said that McAfee, 67, is not a suspect in the killing of
52-year-old American expat Gregory Faull, but urged him to turn himself
in for questioning.
Faull, a Florida builder, was found in a
pool of blood early Sunday at his home on the island of Ambergris Caye,
off the coast of Belize.
"Suspect or no, I believe the government
wants me out of the way. Too many people have died in custody in this
country so I Intend to do nothing that puts me in their custody," said
the message from an email account that McAfee identified as his during a
conversation with an AP journalist in May.
Jeff Wise, writing for Gizmodo, reported on Monday that McAfee and Faull had been "at odds for some time."
"Last
Wednesday, Faull filed a formal complaint against McAfee with the
mayor's office, asserting that McAfee had fired off guns and exhibited
'roguish behavior,' " Gizmodo reported. "Their final disagreement
apparently involved dogs."
Police who came to the Faull's home said a computer and phone were missing, but that there was no sign of forced entry.
They also searched McAfee's house next door, but said there was no one there.
McAfee, however, told Wired's Joshua Davis that he was in fact hiding
in the sand under a cardboard box at the time because he feared for his
life.
In his email, he also told Wired -- in what Davis described
as "semi-hourly updates -- that he had modified his appearance in a
"radical fashion," claiming to have dyed his hair, eyebrows, beard and
mustache jet black.
"I'll probably look like a murderer, unfortunately," he told Davis.
In
one email to the magazine, McAfee included an essay about Belize, the
former British Honduras, which he called a "pirate haven" that is "run
more or less along the lines established centuries ago by the likes of
Captain Morgan, Blackbeard and Captain Barrow."
"Brutality creates
respect; Fear is the means of governance; Extortion is the method of
collecting what is due," McAfee wrote. "It's a system that functions
more or less smoothly if you play by the rules."
McAfee has had a
checkered relationship with police since he arrived in Belize three
years ago after selling his software company.
Last April, Belize
police raided his home looking for drugs and guns. McAfee said officers
found guns, which he said were legal, and he was released without
charges after being detained for a few hours.
Yet, just last
Thursday McAfee appeared at a public ceremony with the mayor of San
Pedro and police officials where he donated equipment - including
Tasers, handcuffs,and batons - to the San Pedro Police Department.
USA Today