Serial rapist targets sixth victim in the city
Reports of crime involving grenades, shootings, stabbings and drug smuggling, have been constant on the news and now there is reason to believe that a serial rapist is lurking in the city streets. Over the past four weeks there have been six cases of rapes and attempted rapes committed presumably by the same person. While police are hesitant to call the accused rapist a ‘serial’ rapist, the frequency of the crime and similar MO fits the profile.
The perpetrator moves around primarily in the Lake I and Collet area. He targets women walking or riding in the early morning hours. He uses a knife to hold up his victims and typically demands money and cell phones, and then proceeds to rape his victims either on the street side or in a nearby vacant lot. We’ve put together a chronicle of the past six reported incidents which occurred between August twenty-fourth and September nineteenth.
On Friday at a press briefing, police requested the assistance of the public in locating nineteen year old Leroy Gomez. Gomez is the primary suspect in police investigation in several early morning incidents of rape and attempted rape in common areas of the Southside of Belize City.
The first reported incident took place on Antelope Street on the twenty-fourth of August, when the twenty-two year old victim was walking home in the company of a female friend at three-thirty in the morning. The unsuspecting women were approached by a man who put a knife to the throat of one of the women and demanded her valuables. Her friend was instructed to lie on the ground while the rapist forced his victim into a nearby vacant lot between Antelope and Iguana Street and raped her.
The second incident was a case of attempted rape and robbery and occurred on the thirtieth of August. The twenty-six year old victim was riding her bicycle towards Police Street around three in the morning. The perpetrator, once again, used a knife to threaten the woman and demanded money. He then ordered her to take her pants off and attempted to rape her. Luckily, victim number two managed to escape.
The third reported incident was just reported over the past weekend but happened on the eighth of September. The seventeen year old victim was attacked while walking home at around three in the morning through an alley that leads to McKay Boulevard. She reported that a man on a bicycle grabbed her from behind and proceeded to choke her. He then dragged her into a nearby yard where he stole her cell phone. The victim, who had lost consciousness, awoke to find her pants at her knees. The perpetrator released her when another man shouted at him. He fled the scene without raping the woman, leaving behind his bicycle.
The victim of the fourth incident was not as lucky. The twenty-one year old victim reported to police that on the fifteenth of September she was walking home on Croton Lane at around five-fifteen in the morning. The perpetrator used a knife to rob her of her cell phone and cash. He pushed her to the ground and raped her on the street side.
Two days later, another incident of rape was reported to police. The twenty-six year old victim reported that around two-thirty in the morning of September sixteenth, she was walking home when a man accosted her as she reached the corner of Iguana and Pelican Street extension. The perpetrator placed a knife to her throat and robber her of cash and cell phone and then forced her into a park on Iguana Street where he raped her.
The last reported incident occurred on the nineteenth of September. The thirty year old victim was robbed while standing on Flamboyant Street at around one-fifty in the morning. This time, the woman reported that two men approached her. One of the men pulled a knife and demanded money and her cell phone. He then tried to attack her. This victim outsmarted him and took away the knife in a struggle. She was wounded in her palm and police are linking Gomez to this incident.
Police are “on an intensive manhunt” for Leroy Gomez who they believe is responsible for all the sex crimes. According to police reports, the rapist has also been consistent with the clothes he wears and has mostly been dressed in a three quarter dark pants and either a white undershirt or black t-shirt and a cap. As can be noted from the previous incidents, the areas and time of attacks are common. If you have any information regarding Leroy Gomez or his whereabouts please contact the nearest police station.
