B.E.L. Employee Shot & Killed; Family Attacked by 2 Men

Brian Perez

A murder was recorded in Belize City today. Just before eleven a.m., Brian Perez succumbed to a gunshot injury he received on Thursday night at his rented home on Gill Street in Belize City. The thirty-eight-year-old, who has a twin brother, had just arrived home with his family when they were accosted by two men. His mother and sister were struck with what is believed to be a metal pipe and in that moment, one of the assailants approached Perez and fired a deadly shot. The B.E.L. employee was living at the house for about five years and is not known to have been in any conflict. News Five’s Duane Moody reports on the incident that occurred around seven-thirty p.m.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Brian Perez, an employee of Belize Electricity Limited, has been living with his wife and children in this rented house located at the rear of this fenced yard on Gill Street for the past five years. After purchasing groceries on Thursday night, he arrived at home in the company of his wife, his mother and his teenage sister. But as they were removing the goods from the vehicle, reports are that his mother and sister were attacked by two men with a metal pipe.

Voice of: Landlord

“I heard a lot of screaming and shouting and shrieking and really dramatic. So I told my brother I was going to call him back; I need to know what’s happening outside. So I went outside. I looked up the street because I thought it was down the street; I never thought it was in the same yard. I was right at home, we were watching the news. It was early; that’s the other surprising thing, it was early. The news had just finished when I heard the screaming. It was a pitiful screaming. And when we open our doors, the guy’s mom, she was bleeding, his little sister was bleeding and he was on the floor bleeding.”

Perez was already inside the house and when he came out to the commotion, one of the assailants came up to him and fired a single shot at close range. The two men then fled the area by jumping the fence and running off into Ross Pen Road. The landlord, who wished not to disclose her name, describes what she saw when she got outside.

Voice of: Landlord

“I saw his wife coming to me and she had blood on her. She was screaming and bawling and she said that someone invaded their house; someone went in there and shot her husband. I was really in disbelief because that has never happened in this yard before, so I went to see for myself and when I went there, he was right by the door on the floor, face down and he was bleeding. But I didn’t know if he was dead or so, I just saw him like that and the neighbours called for police and police came.”

The thirty-eight-year-old electrical technician was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in the pan of a police pickup truck and into surgery. He was in a critical condition until this morning, when he succumbed to his injuries. A statement from B.E.L. says, “We are heartbroken at the loss of our dear Brian Perez. Brian gave B.E.L. twenty years of dedicated service, over which time he developed close friendships and contributed meaningfully to the work of serving our customers. We will miss him dearly and we pray for his family as they grieve his passing.” So what triggered the deadly violence against Perez and his family?

Voice of: Landlord

“He lived with his family; he had his common-law wife and their children. They recently had a baby, who is three months old. And sometimes his mom comes to visit as what happened. His mom and his little sister were visiting; sometimes they come and visit him occasionally. He’s a working man, he is a quiet person, he is a family oriented person. You can ask him to help you with anything and he will help you because he is an electrician too. He is all for family. He is not from Belize City so he doesn’t have any friends here; I guess, apart from where he works. He is very stable; he has been working at B.E.L. for about eighteen, nineteen years. So it is disheartening, it’s really disheartening. I don’t know what to think, I don’t know what to say.”

Brian Perez

Even though she has lived in this area all her life, the landlady says that it has shattered her sense of safety.

Duane Moody

“How do you regain your sense of security?”

Voice of: Landlord

“I think that’s not only up to me. I can put cameras and so, but it is up to the people in authority because they need to put more cameras on the street, especially in gang infested areas like these. They need to do more. They need to do more for the security of their citizens.”

Duane Moody for News Five.