Victims safe after foiled kidnapping
They say that alls well that ends well and by that standard an early morning kidnapping and shooting has ended very well indeed. But for a while things were touch and go as some determined and well armed bad guys tried very hard to settle what appeared to be an old score.
Percival Flowers, Kidnap Victim
“Well I think they wah kill me, that’s all I was thinking, they wah kill me.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Today fifty-year-old Percival Flowers is lucky to be alive. Just before midnight on Monday, Flowers and his common law wife, Cecilia Stevenson were asleep in bed when as many as five armed men arrived at the front door of their home in St. Paul’s Bank in the Belize District.
Percival Flowers, Kidnap Victim
“We hear the door, the knock. Cecilia get up and open it…noh open the door right out, but she gone and ask them that dah who, dah who. They bawl and seh police, police! So the gial have the door crack and they shove she and get inna the house along with all deh gun and things.”
And that’s when the horror began. Flowers says it was all he could do to try to hide in the bathroom.
Percival Flowers
“I was trying to escape, but afterwards–cause wah next door mi deh deh–but I seh I gwine right inna the bathroom and if they come deh, maybe I could help myself. But they come and they stamp down the door and soh they get weh I deh. We have a little hassling right deh, because they mi wah shoot me right from inna the bathroom, they mi wah shoot me deh.”
But the gunmen didn’t shoot Flowers in his house. Instead, they took the couple outside, where this vehicle was waiting.
Percival Flowers
“And dah so they take off, they gone pan the road. As they get pan the road, they start to haul out tape, because then I di see everything. So I see they haul up tape…”
Janelle Chanona
“Where they put the tape?”
Percival Flowers
“The first place, they cover my mouth. The second tape, they cover my eyes. The third tape, they wrap my hand and tape it back deh. And they tape my foot this way and this way, because they lock it. Then they put me to lay down in the van. I can’t do nothing, I just lay down right deh soh, and from deh they start to slap me up and ask me fi money, ask me fi drugs, both things.”
Janelle Chanona
“You knew what they were talking about? You have any money, any drugs that they would want?”
Percival Flowers
“I don’t have no money, no drugs. I am a fisherman, I usually have money, because I am a big producer fisherman, everybody know me as a big producer in Northern Fishermen Cooperative.”
Flowers says even though he was bound and blinded he was still able to tell in which direction he was being taken based on how the road felt and the sound of the bridges in the area.
Percival Flowers
“Then we gone and hit the main to get to Boom junction. When they get there, they shove me in a lee corner and they cover themselves. They deh down low too because I feel them the press pan me. That’s where they have the checkpoint. They nevah gone that way, they gone north side, when you seh eastside, going to Belize side. Finally, they drive a little and I feel–I noh know if they gone pan the right or left side–but somewhere round they in that area, which is Ladyville, I call it Ladyville all the way in between deh, so they tek me behind bush and they tek me out ah the truck. The first thing, I heard the shot gone bow! I only feel a slight thing and a big hole when I lick my lip, cause they sew it up right, I lick and I think this dah wah shot graze off. And they shot me yah again.” (points to thigh)
As Flowers lay bleeding profusely, his common law wife, fearful that their kidnappers would fire the fatal shot, quickly offered the men money that the couple had in their house. The men were convinced and they left with her from a spot now identified by police to be located near the entrance to Lord’s Bank Village. Three of the kidnappers took off with the woman, while two stood watch over Percival.
But back at the house, Cecilia Stevenson was not going to go easily. Though alone with three armed men, she took her opportunity to escape by locking herself up in the house and calling for help. The abductors rushed back to their accomplices, but by then, the police had already been called and a dramatic shootout ensued.
When the dust cleared, two of the gunmen had been detained and within hours, two more were enjoying police custody. In the vehicle, cops found masks and this SMG machine gun. Flowers claims the motive of the attack involved misinformation about drugs.
Percival Flowers
“They know I dah wah fisherman. So they get information bout the place that I have drugs and things like that, you understand.”
Janelle Chanona
“But you say you are not involved in drugs…”
Percival Flowers
“No, I nevah involve with the drugs, but that dah the information weh deh outside, understand?”
Residents of St. Paul’s Bank tell News 5 the van had been seen in the area for the past week.
