Two deaths linked to previous violence
What started as an apparent kidnapping in a quiet section of Belmopan has evolved in a series of shootings and murders stretching into the heart of Belize City’s roughest neighbourhoods. Exactly how all the events are connected is not clear, but News 5’s Jacqueline Woods, who covered yesterday’s disappearance in Belmopan and shooting at Belizean Beach, has been working overtime on the latest deadly developments.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The body of twenty seven-year old Anthony “Trigger’ Adderley was found this morning at mile three and a half on the Western Highway. His face had several bruises and he had been shot to the temple. Sandra Uter, Adderley’s mother says when he failed to come home Monday night she did not become too alarmed because they thought he had gone to his house to sleep that night.
Sandra Uter, Adderley’s Mother
“Due to the fact that his light was cut out Friday when he was at work, for the past three nights it’s upstairs that he sleeps with me. From last night I kept asking, “whe Anthony, whe Anthony.” Nobody can’t tell me where’s Anthony. His bike is still here, which in I know he usually lends a young man the bicycle to go home at night because he lives in Kings Park. And he’d catch a car home when he lives by complex area right.”
This morning police went to Uter’s house to inform her that they had found her son and they needed her to identify the body.
Sandra Uter
“According to how I see it, and what the officer tell me, his head was down this way and blood was still seeping out. It look like it wasn’t something that happened all that long, because you see the blood still moist. Part of his nose is dig out, the whole side of his face looks swollen and scraped up or something of the sort.”
Police say at this time they do not have a motive for the murder and cannot say if the killing is linked to the disappearance of Mark Ireland and the shooting of Joel Waight. However, we understand that police strongly suspect that Germaine Fuentes, who is wanted in connection with both those incidents is also being sought for the shooting.
According to reports reaching News 5 sometime after twelve on Monday afternoon, Adderley was inside a house with Fuentes when there was an exchange of words. Adderley apparently then left the building and went by his family’s residence on Mayflower Street. A short time after, Adderley started to walk away from the area, when it is alleged Fuentes and another individual pulled up in a white pickup and Adderley got inside the vehicle. That was the last time anyone saw Adderley alive.
Uter says she does not know if her son knew Fuentes; only that her son was making the necessary steps to change his lifestyle.
Sandra Uter
“I can’t tell nobody that my child is a hundred percent good. He’s been involved in little ups and downs with people, but from he moved before Christmas, he come to me and said, “Ma, I have changed my lifestyle. I feel like I responsible, and since I move now, I feel my life is intact how I want my life to be.”
I said, “Yes Anthony, because you’re not a boy anymore, so what I want you to do is behave yourself.”
This afternoon as police were investigating Adderley’s murder another shooting rocked in the area. Twenty year old Deon Lewis, one of Adderley’s friends, had just left his home to go and buy clothes to attend Adderley’s funeral when he was chased through Fuller’s Alley by a group of young men. According to reports, several gunshots were heard and then Lewis was seen running from the alley before he finally collapsed on Gibnut Street. Lewis received a gunshot wound to his back and was rushed to the K.H.M.H. but died shortly after.
Because both Adderley and Lewis are from the volatile Ghost Town neighbourhood, the police assembled at the hospital to prevent any further confrontation. Peace was maintained at the K.H.M.H. but with at least one…and perhaps several brutal killers on the loose, a bewildered nation remains prepared for more bad news. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
Police are not saying conclusively that the latest killings are related to the previous incidents in Belmopan and at Belizean Beach. It appears, however, that the car belonging to Mark Ireland may be the same white Cherokee believed to be driven by Germaine Fuentes when he, along with several others, picked up Joel Waight around nine on Sunday night. Waight was then shot when he got out of the vehicle at Belizean Beach. Although wounded in the head and near the spine, it is reported that Waight pretended to be dead and after his assailants left, managed to reach a relative’s house nearby. Waight and Fuentes were friends and reports to News 5 indicate that Fuentes was living with Waight’s teenage daughter. Waight, still in the hospital, has not yet spoken to police.
In a related note, witnesses tell News 5 that Fuentes, who is out on bail on a previous drug charge, appeared in court on Monday morning…but has not been heard from since. In addition to Germaine Fuentes, police are also looking for Marlon Harris, a.k.a. Fisher and two other men who were allegedly with Fuentes when Waight was shot. Meanwhile, Mark Ireland and his white Cherokee remain missing.
