Argument between Friends Results in Fatal Stabbing in Salvapan, Belmopan
Franklin Tut
A little less than five hours later, nineteen-year-old Franklin Tut became the second victim to be fatally stabbed in Belmopan on Saturday night. It happened sometime before midnight inside Mary’s bar in the Maya Mopan area. Tut ran inside the bar with the intention to flee from a person with whom he was arguing with outside the establishment. That person, however, pursued Tut inside the premises and stabbed him once to the neck before fleeing the scene. Tut was rushed to the Western Regional Hospital, but died minutes later. News Five’s Hipolito Novelo found out how a senseless argument resulted in cold-blooded murder.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
Just before midnight on Saturday, nineteen-year-old Belmopan resident Franklin Tut ran inside Mary’s Bar in the Maya Mopan Area. He was fleeing from someone in the neighborhood who was arguing with him outside just moments before. But that person followed Tut inside the bar. What happened next was sudden, shocking and fatal. In a matter of seconds, Tut was stabbed once to the neck. The incident unfolded so quickly that those inside the bar did not realize how serious the injury was.
Voice of: Worker
“I saw him burst in and the other guy came like running behind but I wasn’t really paying attention to them. I saw him holding his neck. I thought it was a simple fight they had. I don’t know but he was holding his neck. The other guy like burst in and when he moved his hand from around his neck I saw like blood squirting. The other guy ran outside.”
Tut attempted to pursue his attacker but the wound was too deep. He was losing too much blood, too quickly. He was dying in front of about a dozen persons.
Voice of Worker
“I went outside. I started screaming and telling them to take off their shirt so that we pressed the cut right. I don’t really know with what he got stabbed because I wasn’t really paying attention like I said. So I went outside and he still took off his shirt because he was standing up still. He took off his shirt and I pressed his wound. Then I couldn’t help him anymore because I saw blood and I passed away. Then I saw people were helping him but then he had lost a lot of blood. A car passed and his friends, some guys that were there took him to the hospital. We tried to help. He did not pass away here.”
Tut passed away at the Western Regional Hospital about half an hour later. His step-brother, Enrique Lopez, says Tut’s murder stems from a senseless argument over a bicycle. The attacker accused Tut of snitching on him for stealing a bicycle in the neighborhood.
Voice of: Enrique Lopez, Step-Brother of Franklin Tut
“They had an argument over a bicycle. That they tell ‘Chino’ that they told the other guy that he had the bike. Then he went and then he fight. The guy came out and hit him. ‘Because who tell you that? Who tell you that?’ I did not tell them what happened with the bike. Yes, Chino said. Yes, they told me that you told them that I have the bike. He came back inside again, sat down and then Chino came back inside and told him that he would be back for him. Then I told him to let’s go. ‘No I will just drink one beer, one beer. Okay one beer. Then he came. He went out and everything, Chino. Then he came back in and suddenly he just take out and stabbed in on his neck, Stabbed him and twist. When that happened, he ran away with the object with what he did the thing to him.
The attacker is being sought by police. Investigators have yet to officially determine a motive.
Joseph Myvett
ACP Joseph Myvett, Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch
“In this regard the police is also seeking an name person in relation to this investigation”
Reporter
“Could you say that named individual is a minor?
ACP Joseph Myvett
“No, he is not.”
Reporter
“Have you been able to ascertain the nature of that dispute between the two individuals?
ACP Joseph Myvett
“At this point in time, no as obviously the dispute was outside the bar before he entered the bar.”
Reporter
“Any surveillance cameras from that establishment?”
ACP Joseph Myvett
“No surveillance camera. Statements have been recorded though and we are continuing with that investigation.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Chino and Franklin were friends?”
Voice of: Enrique Lopez
“Yes. Close friends because he used to come here, lend him the bicycle and the boom box and the phone and everything. The friends of them they say that he spoke to them. He just said, “I’m done.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.
