Murder, shootings plague City
Belize City Police are investigating a murder on Tuesday night that claimed the life of twenty-four year old Marlon Salazar. According to police, they responded to reports of shots being fired on T-Street in the Port Loyola area around seven thirty last night but upon arrival they were told that the injured man had been taken to the KHMH. Salazar, who lived on Gill Street, also in Port Loyola, died while undergoing treatment. He had been shot in the upper right side of his chest. The police say they are still trying to identify a motive for the shooting and are asking anyone with information that may help in solving the murder to call the nearest police station or Crimestoppers at 922.
Two other shooting incidents in Belize City in the last twenty four hours have left two men hospitalized. Thirty-five year old Eddison Diego was shot in the right side of his back around five o’clock yesterday afternoon. Diego told police that he was riding his bicycle on Dolphin Street and that upon reaching an area in front of the Belize Dry Cleaners, he heard a loud noise and realized that he was shot. According to Diego, he immediately fled the area and upon leaving heard three more shots. Diego has so far been unable to identify his attacker. The other shooting happened a short distance away at the corner of Currasow and Gibnut streets. Seventeen year old Shawn Moore was shot in his right leg as he was standing on the corner. Moore, who also claims to be unable to identify his attacker, says that a man on a bicycle just rode up to him, pulled out a short firearm, pointed it in his direction and pulled the trigger. Police investigations into the shootings continue.
Authorities meanwhile have been successful in putting a name to the face of a man who was stabbed to death on Gibnut Street. He is identified as Andre Torres, a forty-three year old Honduran national who resided on Mahogany Street. Police Press Officer G. Michael Reid says that initial investigations revealed that Torres was involved in an altercation with another Hispanic man who pulled out a knife and stabbed him. Police have detained one person pending further investigations.
A motorcyclist was killed by a hit and run driver on Tuesday night near Central Farm in the Cayo District. Twenty-two year old Hector Lopez, a resident of San Marcos Village, sustained severe head and body injuries and died on the spot after his motorcycle collided with a car sometime around seven thirty last night. According to San Ignacio police, initial investigations reveal that Lopez was riding his motorcycle on the Western Highway east towards Central Farm when the car, a white Chrysler traveling in the opposite direction, tried to overtake another vehicle. After he knocked down Lopez in front of the Matthew Spain Airstrip, the driver of the car attempted to flee the scene but with a damaged front fender, punctured tires and broken windshield the car didn’t travel very far. The driver then abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot. Police this morning apprehended Benque Viejo resident Henry Winston Ford who is believed to be the driver of the hit and run vehicle.
