Mother of Murder Victim Speaks Up Against Police

Christian Ramos

On Wednesday, we told you about Christian Ramos, the eighteen-year-old whose body was found stuffed inside a barrel floating in a Belize City canal. The young man had been fatally shot and his body disposed of in a blue, plastic container that was later found in the waterway near Sarstoon Street. Investigators mentioned that while no suspects had been identified, they are exploring several leads. Today, we spoke with Ramos’ mother, who says her son was loved by all.

Britney Gordon, Reporting

While many families are in the process of cleaning up after Christmas, Kenisha Velasquez and her family are planning a funeral. The loss of her young son has left them grieving and broken, forced to pick up the pieces during what should be a joyful season.

Reporter

“Can you walk me through the night that he went missing?”

Kenisha Velasquez

Kenisha Velasquez, Mother of Victim

“It was Christmas Eve. In the day I was not here.  He and his sister got into a little argument because he was taking something that he wasn’t supposed to take. Then he left and he gone and he never did come back- and then when he did come back, according to his sister, he came in a silver van. I was scolding him and he walked off the veranda and he got into the silver van, like one of those dollar van type. So my daughter came and she said, mom, mom, you know that Chris got into a van a gone. I asked if she saw who in the van, she said no. She said that the van was tint.”

Velasquez claims that her son left the house with an unidentified person in a tinted vehicle around six pm on Christmas eve, only to return home less than an hour later and leave the house again on a neighbor’s bicycle.

Kenisha Velasquez

“He took the bicycle that belongs to the young man. And I asked him, I said, where are you going with that bicycle? He said, no where. I thought he had left, but one of my friend came and said that he was still out there. And then I went back outside and I told him when my friend left, I said, Chris, you can’t do what you want and expect that they won’t scold you. You have to learn to listen. And when I come inside, it looked like he picked up the bike and he got on the bike. And he gone and he didn’t come back.”

Velasquez explained that her son is unfamiliar with Belize City, as he grew up with his father and stepmother in Seine Bight Village and only visited her on occasion.

Kenisha Velasquez

“He have two moms. He have me and he have his stepmother. But we don’t say stepmother cause she raised him from a young age. That’s his mom.  The last conversation he had like a real conversation with anybody was with her. They were talking about his birthday and she was telling him to send ham and cake. And then when she got off the phone with him, I heard him say, love you, Kimmy. He said, I love you, Trini. And then he came and he was telling me like, make we send food on the plane for the Christmas day. So I could never expect that my baby wouldn’t come home”

Suspicions started to rise for the family on Christmas Day when Ramos did not return home for a meal with them.

Kenisha Velasquez

“When, the morning I was still out here until four-thirty waiting for him to come home cause it’s the first time he did something like that. Whenever he comes from Seine Bight, it’s like just over at our family’s right on the stretch here. He doesn’t go anywhere. He’s not even familiar with Belize. His mom, miss Kim, miss Mena because he lives at the Mena residence in Seine Bight. She called me and she said Ken, I will send Chris. She said let Chris come cool out a little bit because the crowd that Chris hangs with, she doesn’t want him to get into trouble. He has no enemy. Then the press release said he’s known to police. My son is not known to police. You all could do your research from what I’m telling you, they have more than one Christian Ramos. More than one person named like him.”

Velasquez stated that her son was quiet and well liked by all and that the crime was cruel and vicious.

Kenisha Velasquez

“I always tell her, I say Kim, that I born Chris for you. God knew that you would be one of the best moms. He knew that I born my son for her for them to take him away from us and put him in a dirt can. I could have done that when I had my baby- I back my baby eight months for them to just take him. Take his life. Take him away from us and turn him upside down in a trash can and put him to float. It hurts. They are vicious. People don’t know what they did but I have one thing to tell the people that killed my son. The wheel of justice, it grinds slow but it grinds fine and when you get away from society, you don’t get away from God. Because that man sees and knows all and that’s the God that I serve. And all of us serve. And we will live to hear about it”

Britney Gordon for News Five.