Dispute over horse may be cause of Willows Bank killing

The weekend’s fourth murder occurred around eight-thirty on Sunday morning. Forty one year old Gary Gabourel and his common law wife Topaz Smith and children were on one of their weekend retreats at the family farm in Willow’s Bank Village in the Belize District when the peaceful atmosphere was shattered by a fight followed by a single gun shot blast. Sources tell News Five that the murder is the result of an ongoing dispute between the gunman and his victim. According to reports, the men had bought a racehorse together, but when the animal died, the two disagreed over money. But that ended on Sunday morning when the suspect showed up with a sixteen gauge shotgun. After a verbal exchange Gabourel was shot in front of his daughter and common-law wife. He was struck in the left side of the chest and rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Today Assistant Commissioner of Police Crispin Jeffries spoke about the violence that has been occurring and the choice of weapons being used to commit the crimes.

A.C.P. Crispin Jeffries, Head, Eastern Division
“There is also a bit of information that is not yet out there and we recognize the propensity to use edged tools as a part of murder weapons today. We are seeing, beside these incident, two separate stabbing incidents that have people critically injured in the hospital and we are not going to give any information or names but we are looking at those very closely.”

Gary Gabourel worked security at the Philip Goldson International Airport.