Caye Caulker woodcarver gunned down at Fair Brother’s Pawn Shop
It is believed that an argument prompted the shooting of a resident from Caye Caulker this morning, when the area was abuzz with activity. The twenty-seven year old victim had landed in the City minutes earlier from the island. Edwin Henry, a wood carver, was in town to pawn tools when he was shot in the face by a security officer at the Corner of Central American Boulevard with Mahogany Street. Henry is undergoing surgery at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. News Five’s Jose Sanchez reports on this morning’s shooting.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
edwin henry
Caye Caulker resident Edwin Henry left the idyllic and serene atmosphere of the island at seven a.m. to conduct business in the crime capital, Belize City. But before eight-thirty this morning at Fair Brothers Pawn Shop, he was shot in his face. His common law wife got on the next boat to be by his side as soon as she heard he was gravely injured.
Shenean Herbert, Common-law Wife of Edwin Henry
“The doctor says he is in a bad condition right now. He is on life support. He will be on that for three days.”
Jose Sanchez
“And after that?”
Shenean Herbert
“And then after that they will take it off and check it. If he’s still not able to breathe by himself good, then they will put it on again.
Jose Sanchez
“Have they been able to tell you if it was just one bullet?”
Shenean Herbert
“Da just one bullet to the face.”
Jose Sanchez
“So it entered the face and exited the neck?”
Shenean Herbert
“Only through his face but whole of his face swell up. All in his mouth.”
Shenean Herbert says her husband went to conduct routine business at the pawn shop located at the corner of Central American Boulevard and Mahogany Street.
Shenean Herbert
“When he left home this morning he went to the Pawn Shop. He had a sander and a rotor there. Two tools weh we use to do our business, our carving, we pawned them out. Right there I get to understand there was a misunderstanding and the security shot him. But he neva had fi shot him in his face. Da no wah robbery because we got the proof and all the proof write down in the computer deh too that da we thing we pawn out there, we gone for.”
Jose Sanchez
“And this equipment is something needed in your line of work. What is it that you do?”
Shenean Herbert
“We do carvings with the tools he gone for.”
Jose Sanchez
“So it was just a misunderstanding between him and the security guard?”
Shenean Herbert
“As I get fi understand, da wah misunderstanding, I hear.”
Officers tagged the crime scene. A pool of fresh blood marked the spot where Henry fell. On the ground, a white baseball cap lay keeled over and soaked in blood that gushed from Henry’s face. And a knife, possibly a switch blade was also strewn on the ground nearby.
Jose Sanchez
“I was told that there was a knife on the ground at least. Do you know if he had it or where that knife may have come from?”
Shenean Herbert
“Well usually when he comes out I watch him bathe, change everything. He never ker wahn edge tool, and he is not someone weh back edge tools pan he any at all. So that is just a thing weh that security put there to win his case. But I want justice and this gwen further. I no di stop and I wah push cause I wah justice for my husband and this no gwen right so.”
Did Henry have a knife? Who drew this weapon first? Did the security guard, Elroy Hemmans use unnecessary force? All questions that may be answered on security camera perched above the shop. Answers that can’t come soon enough for his family.
Shenean Herbert
“I got one son fi he and my baby two months. With the condition weh he deh right now. I no know if he wah live or dead. I will just pray and hope he will get better to help me and my baby again. Because he da we breadwinner. Da he and me, we, work together to make business.”
Whatever the outcome of the investigation, the constant state of high alert in the old capital ensures that there will be blood on the streets. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
We’ve attempted to call Fair Brothers Pawn Shop, but both listed and unlisted numbers are not working. According to the police report, the security guard identified as Elroy Hemmans, said that he instructed Henry to wait. But instead of waiting, Hemmans claimed that Henry attacked him with a knife, which prompted him to fire a single shot that caught him in the right side of his face.
In my view this is matter of excessive force… give me a break if the man was any threat and he had any training he should have shot his leg or hand. I hope the truth as to what happened there comes out caz no one just go after the security because they are told to wait… this no sound right – why we have become so violent and solve everything with force.. this is really sad!
Life’s cheap in the Jewel.
Stop the paranoia & the anger people, it is killing us!… No matter what the surveillance tape shows, it will not change the fact that we have to develop better communication skills.
The security camera should revealed the truth if not altered by the corrupt.
if the camera is evidence that Edwin attacked the security guard with a knife then he did the right thing, if not, he should be dealt with like a true criminal.
One would be crazy to enter into that death zone not armed, killers are waiting for the opportunity to snuff out your lfe, It should not be illegal to arm yourself in Belize, is it?
It is always harder to swallow when a hard working man becomes victim to these senseless crimes in belize.
Hope that they share the video so that the truth can be revealed. Wish Henry a speedy recovery
BZNinCALI…………. YOU’RE ON POINT!!!
CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND COMPROMISE……… let’s PRACTICE this. Peace ON EARTH!!!!
WE LOST the CHRISTIAN ABILITY TO TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, AND HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT WE ARE ALL GOD’S CHILDREN.
THE CHURCHES HAVE FAILED US!!!!
Y did the security guard shoot this man in his head? If he was trained to do the job he was hired to do n he thinks he was approached by the young man in a way that his life felt threatened he should have used his brain. Since when a knife (the Guy supposedly had) can do more damage than the gun he was carrying? WTH, something doesn’t add up in this story, did the police investigate if these individuals knew each other before the incident, maybe they had a previous altercation n this was the security guard chance to get back at him, who knows.
to Etith :If the person charging at you with a knife you just trying protect yourself ,you are trying to survive ,you dont have time to think ,should shoot this guy to the leg or to the arm…..
and the knife was left right there on the ground ,police have it.
Put you on the spot, the spot of the security guard, where criminals thugs kill these poor, underpaid, undertrained fellas for their guns and sometimes for the kick of it. On the other side of the coin – going to Belize City, it is best to be as hassle free as possible, because everyone is so on edge, everyone is expecting something to jump of at any minute; I myself tap the the butt of my licensed Sig every 5 seconds, just to make sure the baby is there and run through all the scenarios that could arise and make me use my cool, cold, led spitting friend…that is what the S….. Of Belize does to folks….put you on edge…its them-or-me attitude. I don’t blame the security guard for a split second….. I would rather go wash cars for a living than be a security guard, if those were the only two choices I have of work in Belize Shitty.
Hey this is wrong. This is place is said to have a reputation of people treating you bad. These people take yr stuff pay you little or nothing and treat you bad when you go pick up your stuff. Sometimes they cant find your stuff they extend your time and dont update your card. A lot ot things at this palm shop. Our poor belizeans have to take everything cause we can do better. Many of the times these things are palm to buy food and its sad that these people have to be so rude to our poor belizean people. But so it is
@ Audrey, Robert ,Proud, Earl ,Edith and Peacemaker . Shut the #*% cause you don’t know what you’re talking about. I personally know the security guard and he had never had a conviction or problems with any one. That guy has been going to work to take care of his little baby which barely a year old and and has one on the way. The security did not just wake up like those little no good ghetto youths and say I’m going to kill someone today because he from a different hood or to rob. He went to work to make a decent living and the guy went up to him threaten him and got into a struggle. What if he had got the gun and shoot the guard then you would get online and sympathize and talk a whole lot of bs with your stupid self… don’t know half of the story. Do you know that security was once in a critical condition; almost lost his life from being stab. The good Lord knows best and that he was worth something so he gave him another chance so if i was in his position I would have done the same thing. He has been having problems trying to do his job more than once and work very hard at keeping the peace but he was pushed over the edge this time. Don’t friggin think about answering back because nothing you say could change my mind from from saying he was 100% right for doing what he did. You think that youth would have let him live if he had the upper hand; he would have let that security had all the bullets in that gun so better chance at having 2 lives save than one in the earth, one in jail and two little youths growing up fatherless with a struggling mother. …. all you …..*talking …. you know nothing about.