Security guard critical after shooting
With the possible exception of the occupation of dealing drugs, it is the most dangerous job in Belize. Last night another security guard was shot in the line of duty, this time in Belize City. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has the story.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
A single expended shell, believed to be the bullet fired from the assailant’s thirty-eight revolver was found on the bottom step that leads to the Vin Hong Store on Euphrates Avenue. The casing was just a short distance away from the bloodstains where it is believed J and B security guard, thirty-year-old Haitian national, Andre Douze was shot. Police say at the time of the incident, Douze had no weapon, yet that didn’t stop the shooter. The bullet caught Douze in his upper left back and he remains in a critical but stable condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Joseph Ducey, Friend of Shooting Victim
“Andre told me he stand up about 8:45 when he see a guy passed in a red shirt about three times like he looked suspicious. He the look out and so when the guy approached him, another one hold him with a gun. But at the same time he nevah see that one weh had the gun, he the look out for the next one. Then when he tell him to move out of the way, he ask him why? Then the guy shot him, bust the first shot. Then he swing and the guy shot him again and it ketch ah behind the shoulder and it come out through the front.”
The shooter, who was not wearing a mask, then ran away. It’s not clear what happened to the other assailant, but after the man pulled his gun, the store’s female proprietor ran into a room and locked the door. Police say the men did not manage to get anything from the store, but the co-owner Vin Hong, who did not wish to appear on camera, says he is tired of the hold-ups and robberies. It was the second time his store was targeted.
Vin Hong, Co-owner, Vin Hong Store
“We spend a lot of money to for all of the security for we and they still come to we to shot we. If they come, they bring a gun right and they ask me for the money, no problem, okay, I give you money. But they come, bring the gun and they just shot. They ask you nothing.”
The Haitian community has been just as upset with the way crime has affected their own, but they accept that it’s a risk they must take because back home it’s even more difficult to make a living.
Joseph Ducey
“He accepts no care what happen. He still, when he get betta he going to work again because that dah the job weh he could get. We feel bad and so, but we have to survive.”
Marie Jeoboam, Friend of Shooting Victim
“Because when they came here, we always tell them what is going on in security. But what’s happening now, nothing to do, they have to do the security job to help them because they left the country, they left the family, they will have to send something to them.”
“He tell me he is feeling so bad because he did not expect that to happen you know. But he say no care, no matter what happen when he feels better he will need to go into his job because he can’t come back home. He can’t say because that happen now he is going back because he can’t, especially right now Haiti so hard.”
Although Douze believed there were two men involved in the incident, police say they are looking for one suspect. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
