Shootout between robbers and store owner; customers shot

While two families grieve the deaths of their loved ones, it didn’t turn out as tragic for a mother and son in Orange Walk Town.  Two armed robbers burst into a store belonging to Chinese nationals at the start of the Easter holidays. They held up the store owner and fired indiscriminately in the air. Yllva Cansino and her children were doing their holiday shopping. She and her eleven year old son were caught in the hail of bullets. The incident has devastated the community and News Five’s Andrea Polanco found out today that one suspect is in custody.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Yllva Cansino

Thirty one year old Yllva Cansino and her three children were here, at Yi Gen Wu Store, shopping on Thursday night when they were injured in a foiled robbery. She and one of her sons, eleven year old Carlos, were injured when shots were fired. They were both released from the Northern Regional Hospital on Saturday morning, the mother and son are at home recuperating. Today Cansino spoke with us from her bed, as she is now relying on a pair of crutches to get around:

Yllva Cansino, Injured in Robbery

“Well I went shopping with my  kids we went to the Chinee to buy and when I was about to pay when the robbers came in when one of them jump the counter and grab the Chinee Lady. He pointed a gun at her and from there he pointed a gun and then from there he turn around and said ‘nobody move’ and he shot in the air. The Chinee lady hollered to her husband to get the gun, to defend right and from there I heard gunshots and I don’t, all I felt was a burning in my foot. I didn’t pay it mind, I just grabbed my baby boy and I check for my other two kids and I run in the aisle. But who let the shot off to the back I have no idea.”

Andrea Polanco

“So the robbers, were they wearing masks or anything, I mean did you get a good look at them?”

Yllva Cansino

“The one in front of me yes, he wasn’t wearing no mask. I saw his face; he wasn’t wearing any mask, and the ones behind me I don’t know. Like how he said don’t move I didn’t look at the back.”

Andrea Polanco

“When the robbers said ‘nobody move’ what was going through your mind, u were there with your small children?”

Yllva Cansino

“Actually I didn’t move, I just stayed right there because I was directly in front of him. So I didn’t want to move because di reckly he would’ve shoot me and I was directly in front as I said and I was scared.”

Like their mother, the children were scared but more so traumatized, after surviving that frightening ordeal:

Yllva Cansino

“My baby, he like stayed traumatize, he kept crying the whole night he couldn’t sleep. Then my other son, well he was in the hospital with me, he got shot in his foot too. My daughter she got burned with the gun, she said the boy dropped the gun and the gun touched her foot she has the marks of it. So they’re all scared they don’t even want to go out at night now.”

The Louisiana area is considered to be quite peaceful, so when the gun shots rang out on Thursday night, it left the community in shock.  And according to one resident who wished only to appear off camera, she has lived in this neighborhood since the late 1980’s and is still reeling about the Holy Thursday attempted robbery.

Voice of: Resident

“Well I just hear the gun shot cause ih gone pow pow pow pow and I seh that dah nuh palomita suh I come out and then I gone and I em I come out and den I si people staat to rush yuh nuh. But me si wah man lay down I  mi think ih mi dead lay down right infront ah di chinee  then  di em den wah  man di halla up dah hill deh suh ‘ deh just shot wah man, deh jus shot wah man’ but me nuh know if ih mi dead or living so we when I si crowd.”

Andrea Polanco

“So earlier I understand yuh mi deh dah the same store?”

Voice of: Resident

“Yes I mi deh deh em bout afta eight nearly eight-thirty cause I mi gone buy mi boledo cause I always go deh.”

Andrea Polanco

“First time this store dis store get robbed?”

Voice of: Resident

“First time that this store get robbed. Round dis area  deh  rob but nuh with gun shot yuh nuh deh just guh een and rob because wah next chine shop wah next one deh deh but I nuh know why deh wah tek lone di chinee round yah.”

Andrea Polanco

“Suh you dah seh first time something like this happen right round yah?”

Voice of: Resident

“Happen eena Louisiana area, Louisiana area right front ah di school well ih live close to the school nuh.”

The incident has had a chilling effect on the neighborhood; the store has resumed business, but large double iron grills have been installed and customers now have to ask for what they want through the bars:

Voice of: Resident

“First we freely guh een and pick weh want . Now if  deh hand wi wah stale bread wi have to tek it and I nuh think ih should be man we free fu duh weh wi guh een guh buy yuh nuh.”

Yllva Cansino

“We could just walk in, get what you want, go and pay and get out. Now since the accident happen they blocked it off, can’t go in anymore. Yes it’s inconvenient because usually when you go to the store, you pick what you want; you know exactly what you want. Now you have to ask for what you want, or maybe you have to go to another place to buy what you want because there you don’t have the choice to pick what you want nuh, so it’s different now.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Andrea Polanco.

Jose Miguel Medina is now in police hands as a suspect and police are following other leads in the ongoing investigation.