Weekend violence leaves five injured by gunshots
Two Belize City young men are in the hospital tonight after they were shot in separate incidents over the weekend. According to police, around midnight twenty-two year old Elroy Rowley was standing at the corner of Ebony and Sarstoon streets with several others when a man rode by on a bicycle. According to Rowley, the man suddenly opened fire on the group and then rode away. Rowley was the only one to get hit, sustaining gunshots to his left leg. He is listed as stable at the K.H.M.H.
A few hours later, eighteen-year-old Javier Gentle reported to police that around 3:00 on Sunday morning, he was riding with another young man near the M.C.C. Grounds when a blue mini van tried to down knock his companion. Gentle says he yelled at the driver to stop, but the man responded by pulling out a handgun and shooting him. Gentle sustained a gunshot to his left leg and is in stable condition at the K.H.M.H. Police have yet to detain any suspects in either of these cases.
Violence was not confined to the streets of Belize City as San Ignacio police are also investigating two separate shooting incidents. According to police, on Saturday night they responded to a report at the San Ignacio Hospital where they found a man identified as Ramon Dominguez suffering from gunshot wounds to his neck and shoulder. Investigations so far have revealed that around 9:30 that night, Dominguez and a female friend were sitting in a car parked off the Benque Viejo Road when a masked gunman approached the vehicle from the rear and shot Dominguez. He was rushed to the San Ignacio Hospital, but we understand is now admitted to ward in Belmopan.
On Sunday, another man sitting in a parked car near the Benque Viejo Road became a shooting victim. Thirty-six year old Roy Perez says around midnight, he was sitting in a parked car in the Kontiki area off the Benque Viejo Road, when two men rode up to him on bikes, one of them armed with a sixteen gauge shotgun. Perez says he tried to wrestle away the gun, but it went off with pellets hitting him in his face. The men left him there and rode off into the night. Police have yet to make any arrests.
