In Orange Walk, Youth Survives a Fight But Succumbs After Beatdown and Stabbing

Manuel Alejandro Toloza

So far this year, there are a hundred and twenty murders recorded by the police. In Orange Walk on Saturday night, a man acquitted of murder was found dead. Police have identified persons of interest, but no suspects thus far, in the fatal beating and stabbing of twenty-five year old Manuel Alejandro Toloza. Four years ago, the labourer of Otro Benque Road and two other men were acquitted of the 2012 murder of Ricardo Blanco, found beaten and strangled to death outside Trial Farm. But police are still following up leads as to whether this or other motives led to Toloza being fatally attacked. Toloza was stabbed to the chest and the back of his neck by a group of five men on the Philip Goldson Highway on Saturday night. He had previously been in a fight with another man moments before. Superintendent Selvyn Tillett, officer commanding Orange Walk Police, tells us else what police know so far.

Selvyn Tillett

Supt. Selvyn Tillett, O.C., Orange Walk Police

“Investigation revealed that sometime around nine-thirty on even date, Toloza got into a fight with a male person in front of Da Chan Store, in Trial Farm. However, both people, both Toloza and the other person walked away, went to different directions. Mister Toloza walked [up] on an open lot near a tire shop, in said Trial Farm village, where he was apparently attacked by five other male persons, inflicting said wounds to him. He was transported to Northern Regional Hospital by a passer-by, where he succumbed to his injuries. Police continue their investigations.”

A security guard who claimed to be a witness to the incident was reportedly assaulted in a bid to keep him silent. Police are encouraging him and other known witnesses to come forward with information to solve this latest murder. The attackers, meanwhile, are also said to be well-known to Police.