Seven arrested for jewellery shop robbery
On Monday, morning two armed men entered Edith’s Jewellery Store on George Street and robbed its owner, twenty-four year old Nigel Gongora, of personal items and jewellery worth over nine thousand dollars. Today Belize City police charged seven people they believe were involved in the brazen hold up. Unbeknownst to the robbers, the whole incident was captured by the store’s security camera. When police viewed the tape, they were able to identify Nineteen year old Leon Garcia and eighteen year old Burley Card. One day later, investigations led police to a house at number seventy-three West Canal. At the residence, authorities found their two suspects along with eighteen year old Russell James, nineteen year old Harold Haylock, seventeen year old Eric Walford, nineteen year old Jamaal Pook, and a minor. When police searched the premises they found two of the stolen jewellery items: a gold chain and bracelet. On that same day, another search was conducted at Card’s residence situated at number thirty-eight Victoria Street. There police discovered another stolen gold chain and thick gold bracelet. As a result, police arrested Card and Garcia and charged them with armed robbery. Haylock, James, Walford and a sixteen year old minor have been charged with the crime of handling stolen property. While police were investigating the case one of the accused was also positively identified in another incident as the man who held up twenty-two year old Giles Usher, a messenger of the Alliance Bank. Usher, who identified Burley Card as the robber, says that on July twentieth he was standing on Plues Street when he felt something cold to the back of his head. Usher says as he turned around to look he saw a man holding a gun who told him don’t move while another man robbed him of his nine millimetre Smith and Wesson pistol valued at two thousand six hundred dollars, a Motorola cell phone valued at five hundred dollars, and one hundred and seventy five dollars in cash. As a result, Card has been additionally charged with the crime of robbery. Leon Garcia has been additionally charged for wounding and robbery following a separate incident that occurred on July twenty-third. Today, all seven men appeared in Magistrates’ Court where Card and Garcia were remanded to Hattieville prison. Haylock, James, Walford and the minor were offered bail in the amount of two thousand dollars each. The men are scheduled to reappear in court on August twenty-eighth.
