Police Weigh in on Shooting of Ambrosa Bernardez

Ambrosa Bernadez

One man has been detained for Tuesday night’s shooting of thirty-four-year-old Ambrosa Bernadez.  Bernardez was shot in the vicinity of West Canal and Armadillo Street when a man rode up on a bike to target another person due to an ongoing gang feud.  Today, police had a different perspective on the incident and were not so quick to label the incident as gang rivalry.  While they have one person in custody, police say the witnesses are not as forthcoming as they would hope and the information they provide may be able to help them to properly identify gunman and lay charges.

ASP Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Belize City

“We know that the target was a male person who was along with the female and she was not the target. Unfortunately, she was beside that person and she was the one that ended up getting injured. We have a suspect detained however, we are asking for the public’s assistance to cooperate with us so that we can bring this person to justice. We believe that we have the correct person, but we are just asking for those who are there to come along to us and let us work it together so that we can put the person to justice.”

Alejandro Cowo

Reporter

“So, you need those who witnessed the crime to actually give a police statement to say who they saw as the shooter?”

ASP Alejandro Cowo

“They are the only persons who can clarify what happened out there and assist with the investigation.”

Reporter

“And they are not assisting thus far?”

ASP Alejandro Cowo

“We are just receiving a few [pieces of] information from them but we need to get more things in detail.”

Andrea Polanco

“Is there anything to indicate if that shooting is as a result of gang rivalry – between Supaul Street and another gang in the area?”

ASP Alejandro Cowo

“There is nothing yet that is pointing to any gang involved. What we have is an idea that there could have been possibly a misunderstanding among that group of male persons and that individual who is suspected to have done the shooting, he was there along with them and something transpired between them and thereafter he fired the shots at the persons. We know that there are many gangs within that area there and nowadays it is easy to say that I belong to this gang and somebody from another gang comes and do a shooting – that it is gang related. But we really have to look in depth to see if it is gang related or not. That is the first way how we people classify it on the street.    We have our patrols in the area and we know of the situation and we are trying to bring them to the table and mediate with them so that we can put a stop to what is happening with them.”