Two dead in Orange Walk double murder …

Last night we visited San Pedro to chronicle an execution style murder. Tonight there’s another hit to report, this time in Orange Walk, which left two men dead and one injured. News Five’s Marion Ali has the story.

Emerita Ramos, Mother of Nazim Romero
“What he do, he take away a son of one person that he doesn’t know how his mother raised him. He’s the oldest one. He’s the oldest one, he twenty-one years old. But I give my life for him and to let them take him away like that. He wasn’t sick. He was healthy to let his body go like that.”

Marion Ali, Reporting
Emerita Ramos was the mother of twenty-one year old Nazim Romero who was one of two men killed shortly before eight last night at thirty-three Royal Palm Street in Orange Walk Town. Romero stayed at the house and cared for its owner, Alfredo Urbina, who himself was left incapacitated by another shooting last Tuesday at the residence. Ramos said Romero grew up with his grandmother, but the relationship between herself and him remained close. She said she could not believe her ears when she received the news that he’d been murdered.

Emerita Ramos
“When they give me the news that my son died I take it to heart and I said it can’t be him. So then they tell me like this, noh take it to heart Ms. Ramos, take it slow. I tell ah but how I wah tek it so slow and da my son? And they carry me to hospital, I faint weh and I noh know weh happen afterwards.”

Police say Romero was one of three people who were at Urbina’s house along with two other men: forty-five year old Jose Ricalde who lived next door, and twenty-one year old Noe Perez, when a gunman showed up and opened fire on them.

Romero died at the scene while Ricalde was pronounced dead at the Northern Regional Hospital. His mother, Josefina Ricalde traveled from Calcutta Village to receive her son’s body this morning. She says this is the fourth child she last lost, the first to gun violence.

Josefina Ricalde, Mother of Jose Ricalde
“He was working with a next thing, carrying I think dirt and to fill wah piece of land. He’s working about that.”

Marion Ali
“So he mi work and come home.”

Josefina Ricalde
“He’s coming at time yes, he’s coming fu lef from work.”

Marion Ali
“So ih mi done reach and then ih gone hail ih neighbour.”

Josefina Ricalde
“Well, the neighbour I think I hear ih hail him and that’s what happen.”

Perez, the only survivor, lies in a critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital with bullet wounds in his abdomen and left leg. Police feel they already know who the gunman was.

Inspector Alden Dawson, Deputy O.C., Orange Walk Police
“At this time we are looking for a person who we believe could assist in this investigation by the name of Luis Cardenas.”

Marion Ali
“Is Mr. Cardenas from this area?”

Inspector Alden Dawson
“Mr. Cardenas has family here but, however, he lives in Belize City, Conch Shell Bay area.”

Deputy Officer Commanding the Orange Walk Police Station, Inspector Alden Dawson says police strongly suspect the shooting might have been triggered by a previous incident.

Inspector Alden Dawson
“We believe that it started about a week ago where Mr. Alfredo Urbina was shot and we believe that he was shot by the said Louis Cardenas. We have reason to believe at this time that it may be drug-related and may be connected to a person who was reported missing, a fellow Alden Hall from the said Orange Walk Town here.”

Marion Ali
“Connected in what way, that Mr. Cardenas had to do with Mr. Hall going missing?”

Inspector Alden Dawson
“No, Mr. Cardenas from our investigation is a friend of Mr. Hall and he believes that Mr. Urbina had something to do with the disappearance of Mr. Hall. And they’re all people who deal in illicit activities.”

Alden Hall went missing around eleven last Tuesday morning after leaving his home, also in Orange Walk Town. That same night, Urbina was shot in both legs by someone who snuck up on him at his residence. Last night, however, Urbina was not at home when the shooting started; he was at his mother’s house. Dawson says police have detained four people for questioning but they believe it will be only a matter of time before they apprehend their prime suspect, Louis Cardenas. They have also recovered a number of expended nine millimeter shells from the scene.

Marion Ali for News Five.

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Louis Cardenas is asked to please call the nearest police station.