Mother of 6 is Gunned Down Inside Her House in Santa Elena
Mirna Young
There is heightened tension in San Elena, Cayo tonight where a mother of six was killed on Wednesday night. Mirna Young was with her family at home when she was injured by a gunman who was targeting her son, Mynor Galindo and his friend Angel Martinez, who were in the yard. Her husband, David, was five minutes away from the house when he learnt the horrible news. Police are not ruling out that the murder is linked to another homicide in the area as part of a festering dispute between rival groups in the west. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
A mother of six was gunned down on Wednesday night inside her house on Perez Street in Santa Elena Town, Cayo. Around eight-thirty p.m., her son and a friend, Angel Martinez, were standing inside the fenced yard when two men rode up on a motorbike; a gunman alighted and opened fire at the unsuspecting duo. They ran to evade their attacker, but the gunman pursued them behind the house. As the gunman escaped from the residence, he would open fire into the house that was occupied by Mirna Young, her mother and grandchildren. Young and Martinez were struck by bullets; while Martinez is in a stable condition, Young perished at the hospital. The blood trail in the yard and the bullet-ridden walls are telltale signs of the tragic incident.
Joseph Myvett
ACP Joseph Myvett, Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch
“Upon the police’s arrival, they observed Mirna Young, fifty-eight years with an apparent gunshot wound to the chest area. Police also observed one Angel Martinez with an apparent gunshot wound to the lower back. They were both transported to the San Ignacio Community Hospital where Mirna Young succumbed to her injuries whilst undergoing treatment.”
Just minutes before the fatal shooting, a police patrol had left the area. David Young says that he was ten minutes away from his house when he was told of what had happened. Heartbroken and overwhelmed by the loss of his wife, David says that the incident could have been worse.
David Young
David Young, Husband of Deceased
“I was just about five to ten minutes behind the tragedy and during the time of this tragedy, I was stopped on the road by a bicycle rider, a neighbour who told me that yo wife get shot; ih say let’s go hurry make we go. Well I drove up to the home and before exiting the curve, I look at the area and it mi look disgraceful. I see ina di doorway, surely my wife run dah di door when she heard them shots. But that was not so. She did not have the time to run to the door; how dreadful, how hurtful, inside.”
Duane Moody
“They were a lot of other persons including children inside the home when these shots got fired….”
David Young
“Everybody mi deh inside. The two children—one three years and the other eight—and gunshots the fly over these children heads.”
Mirna was shot to the chest; the bullet exited her right side, but David says she haemorrhaged to death. Martinez, however, is in a stable condition, but we are told he may have been left paralyzed by the shooting as he was hit to the lower back and the bullet may have penetrated his spine.
Nelson Flores
But what could have triggered the gun violence? It is known that Mirna’s son, George Galindo, was recently arraigned and remanded to central prison for the murder of Nelson Flores, who was shot and killed inside his house a couple blocks away from this most recent homicide. Residents and the family believe that the incidents are related. While police would not confirm whether Wednesday night’s murder is retaliatory, ACP Joseph Myvett says that they are looking at all angles.
Duane Moody
“Is the police investigation looking at the relation to the murder of Nelson Flores, for which George Galindo was charged?”
ACP Joseph Myvett
“Yes. We are looking at all angles.”
Duane Moody
“So you believe that it is retaliation?”
ACP Joseph Myvett.
“We are not saying that at this point; we are saying that we are looking at all angles in relation to the investigation.”
David Young
“People on the streets are saying that George had nothing to do with that murder. It is not our style, our custom to be covering things for children, because these people, the Galindo family, brothers, they know to ever offence committed they pay. We don’t pay this way. We are innocent people mien.”
Today, a checkpoint had been installed almost in front of the Galindo/Young residence in Santa Elena in an effort to prevent further violence in the community. But is all out gang war happening in Santa Elena? Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says that they will intervene as much as possible.
David Young
“I don’t want to get a wrong concept right, but it seems as if there is not only a hand, but two hands in the barrel. And then both the police and the enemy against the tribe. I think they are declaring war…dah noh something weh I want.”
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“The police do try our best to keep communities safe, but at the end of the day, people also have a responsibility to ensure their personal safety. And since I was in Cayo, the police presence in that area has been stepped up. As a matter of fact, the police had just left the Galindo residence just five minutes prior to the shooting and there was a mobile patrol within the area as well. But as is normally the case, what they do is wait out the police before they do what they want to get done. And so we are taking additional measures as of today. We will be having static patrols within the area to ensure that the police presence is maintained on a twenty-four hours basis again with a view to have some semblance of calm within the area.”
Police say they have several persons of interests that they are looking for. Duane Moody for News Five.
