According to Aaron Humes, a reporter for the AMANDALA newspaper in a blog post, when 18 year old Gilroy Barrow was shot dead last Friday night, he was the 64th person murdered in Belize in just the first seven months of this year, or an average of 9 per month. At that rate Belize would soon eclipse the highest number of homicides for a single year, this year.
The numbers have kept climbing in a week of mindless random slayings that have become now more the characteristic of a Belizean nation that wasn't too long ago known internationally as a "peaceful haven" and one of the friendliest places on the face of the earth.
On Sunday, David White died. White had been doused allegedly, by his common law wife and set on fire two weeks ago. He succumbed allegedly to his injuries while being treated at Karl Huesner Memorial Hospital.
On Monday a seven month along expectant mother was stabbed just before dawn at her home on Neal's Pen Road. Valerie Sherann was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after she was stabbed in her stomach allegedly by her jealous ex boyfriend. The baby died.
On Tuesday a still as of press time unidentified body of murdered man was found on Western Highway about a hundred feet off the Western Highway on Mount Pleasant Road between Miles 45 and 46 and just outside of Belmopan City. He had been shot in the head and neck.
On Wednesday Russell Neal, 58, was shot early in the morning at his home on Neal’s Pen Road. At the time of the shooting, Neal was at home with his girlfriend and told police that they heard a loud banging on the front door a little after 1:00 a.m. Neal decided to take a look through a window and was hit by a single shot fired through the window. He died while being transported to the KHMH.
And yesterday yet another unidentified dead body turned up. The residents of the normally peaceful village of Scotland Halfmoon were startled when the community's chairlady and two of her sons discovered a dead body buried in a shallow grave just a stone's throw away from their house.
The badly decomposed corpse is that of a male Hispanic or Caucasian man and the shallow grave was discovered just 400 hundred feet off a feeder road in the village.
Only a month ago the body of a Taiwanese man was discovered at his home on the same dirt road.
And the mounting death toll is only a symptom of the wider mayhem and marauding across the nation as the economy contracts.
Belize City Police visited the trauma room at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital on the Sunday where they saw Rafael Caseres, a 27year olds laborer of Belize City with a gunshot wound to his lower back. Caseres said that earlier that night around 8:55pm he was walking on Faber's Road, when he was approached by a man riding a bicycle who fired several shots at him causing the injury.
Belizeans are still abuzz because today Police charged the four men who were intercepted Monday evening in a blue four door Crown Victoria taxi at the Shell Gas Station in Ladyville. They allegedly were in possession of an arms cache and several pieces of equipment that you can't buy over the counter in Belize, but Police have yet to say what their intents were.
A 46 year old Taxi driver Floyd Davis from 8 miles on the Western Highway was the driver and his passengers were 26 year old Belama Phase II resident Jamal Tablada , 19 year old Jarrett Usher an unemployed of Vista Del Mar and Tevin Abraham an 18 year old from Plues Street in Belize City.
The men all had with them a machine gun, two pistols and a quantity of 40 millimeter ammunition, two GPS devices, a military compass and signaling flashlight, black jackets, shirts and pants, masks, a pair of camouflage pants, a black cap, 4 pairs of transparent rubber gloves, and a cellular phone. They also reportedly had dog food, and insect repellent.
They have all been charged for the weapons, ammunition and equipment, and may be charged as part of a criminal conspiracy, if police are able to discover why they were going so well-equipped.
Last Friday night Emil Cordon, the manager of Cascada Bar, Camalote Village, Cayo District reported that three armed and masked men held him up. He was stabbed in the right arm in the incident.
On Monday Ricardo Gongora, manager of Ramon's Esso Gas Station located 2 miles on the Northern Highway, Belize City, reported after closing up his business the night before and driving home, he was kidnapped by two armed and masked men as he exited his vehicle.
He was taken back to his place of business, and forced to open his safe. He is lucky to be alive.
Hon Tat Kwok, 30, the manager of Welcome Store located on the Western Highway in Santa Elena Town, Cayo District, has reported that on the Monday night around 8:10pm two men held him up in his store at gunpoint and got away with cash, phone cards and a cellular phone.
On Wednesday Zhixin LIN reported that he was robbed at gun point the day before while opening up his store on Central American Boulevard in Belize City. Two men walked up to him, placed a silver handgun to his head, relieved him of his loaded licensed 9mm Sig-Sauer P226 pistol, and his business of $1,500.00 in cash, $2,000.00 worth of phone cards and a cellular phone.
At press time tonight there is a report that San Pedro businessman Mario Veracalli committed suicide. Initial reports are that he was frustrated by being caught between a receding economy, the increasing and incessant demands of his creditors, and the possibility that his 8 month old business was going under.
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Source: The Belize Times
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