Mechanic Critically Injured in Belmopan Shooting
Brian Chavarria
A Belmopan resident is clinging to life tonight at the Western Regional Hospital where he was rushed to on Monday night. Forty-four-year-old Brian Chavarria was shot by a person he knew well. It is reported that the mechanic was hanging out with friends at his shop on Sinsonte Street in the Capital after nine o’clock. One thing led to the other and things got heated between members of the group since Chavarria was discouraging the sale of drugs. Anthony Williams is said to have left briefly, but returned armed to the venue and allegedly shot Chavarria multiple times causing the near fatal injuries. Here is News Five’s Duane Moody with a report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Brian Chavarria is tonight hospitalized in a critical condition and in need of several pints of O-positive blood following a shooting incident on Monday night in Belmopan. The forty-four-year-old was at his mechanic shop on Sinsonte Avenue in the Capital socializing with Anthony Williams and others when they got into an argument. Williams left, but returned with a firearm and opened fire on Chavarria. Even as he was gravely injured, Chavarria managed to get to the neighbour’s yard, but collapsed on the walkway. It happened around nine-fifteen p.m., when Elvira Kelly went inside her house.
Voice of: Elvira Kelly, Relative of Shooting Victim
“I went into the bathroom and while I was in the bathroom, I heard shots. And when I heard the shots, I heard the door knock and Miss Gwen’s daughter, her name is Tyronie, she was knocking at the door and said, Miss Kelly, they shot Mister Chavarria. Can you call 911? And so I called 911. And I came out and I saw Mister Chavarria right down there in my yard. He was crouched like this and he was only groaning. At the time, someone came to help him and I said leave him because the police was coming right now. And the police came right away and took him to the hospital.”
Chavarria was rushed to the Western Regional Hospital where he is being treated. Kelly says she heard at least three shots
Voice of: Elvira Kelly
“I only heard one shot and then another two so that’s three in all. So there was one and then there was another three.”
Duane Moody
“I understand he was socializing with some people before this happened?”
Voice of: Elvira Kelly
“Yes. But he wanted them to leave his yard.”
Police are looking for Williams, who it is said is from George Street in Belize City. Residents say that the mechanic shop was known to be a hotspot where marijuana was being sold. Chavarria reportedly got into the confrontation when he wanted the illegal activity to discontinue and that triggered the gun violence.
Voice of: Elvira Kelly
“He didn’t want them to be selling the drugs no more. That’s what I heard he was talking to them about when the person went and came back and shot him. Went to his house after the argument, came back and that’s when he shot him. We need more surveillance for the police men because they were selling the drugs to the young and it is not good for the young. So we need cooperation with the whole public and parents—because I think the parents don’t know that the fifteen-year-olds are buying drugs, came to buy it here. But since he told them that, I see that they haven’t come. But they had an argument about that, I heard and this cause it.”
Elvira Kelly says that it is the first time violence like this has happened in her area.
Voice of: Elvira Kelly
“I don’t feel…because I was sitting down here and I said maybe if they would have…they could have shot me because of looking and seeing and to quiet me too, I could have gotten a shot cause I was sitting down right here. But I got up before and I went into my house. When I came back out it is because there he was, after I called the police, and I saw him down there in my yard.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
