Taxi Driver Executed in Port Loyola

Santiago Rodriguez

Just before three p.m. today, the body of a man was found inside his Toyota Four-Runner taxi off Fabers Road Extension on the south side of Belize City. Forty-eight-year-old Santiago Rodriguez, a taxi operator with the Pound Yard Taxi Cooperative, was executed; shot once to the back of the head inside the vehicle by a person traveling in his taxi. But although the discovery was made this afternoon, the father of eight children was killed some four hours before. When we spoke with his wife this afternoon, she told News Five, that her husband left for work in the morning en route to the Pound Yard area. But around ten-thirty a.m., the taxi drove up and parked at the corner of Trinity and Malcolm Streets; within minutes, the echo of a single blast reverberated in the distance. But there was no reason to be suspicious since the ignition was running.  At least one person was seen alighting the front passenger side of the vehicle and fleeing the scene, but was there another passenger in the backseat? Around three-thirty p.m., Rodriguez’s body was removed from his taxi and taken to the K.H.M.H. morgue where a post mortem is pending. While the investigation is in its infancy stage, Crime Investigation Branch Commander, Superintendent Alejandro Cowo says that robbery may have been the motive for the killing.

Supt. Alejandro Cowo, Officer Commanding CIB

“Sometime after two-thirty today, we received information of a male person inside a vehicle. As a result we proceeded to Trinity Street where we found a male person inside a white in color 4-Runner, apparently with a gunshot wound to the back of his head, noh. The information we have so far is that he had left from his house sometime this morning and normally he was doing his taxi runs when sometime after ten or eleven in the morning, a gunshot was heard in this area. But apparently somebody discovered the person inside the vehicle sometime after two-thirty this afternoon. The person has been identified as Santiago Rodriguez of a Tigris Street address.”

Alejandro Cowo

Duane Moody

“I know it is just preliminary because you guys just processed the scene, but what is investigations showing so far?”

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“Well so far, we can tell you at this moment is that apparently it looks like a robbery up to now. There are some items that is missing from the male person, but yet we are confirming and at this moment we are searching the vehicle to see if we can find other things that belongs to him.”

Duane Moody

“As an expert in this, would you say that the gunshot was fired from within the vehicle or from outside the vehicle?”

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“We suspect that the person that did the shooting was inside the vehicle, behind the driver’s seat.”

Reporter

“Any suspects?”

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“No we don’t have any suspects at this moment. We are canvassing the area and getting information and as soon as we have any other thing we will let you know and see what is happening.”

Duane Moody

“Any expended shells recovered from the scene?”

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“Yes we have one expended shell inside the vehicle.”