Boxing Day murder in Hopkins

Luke Nunez Jr.

There was less violence recorded over the Christmas holiday. As expected, several burglaries occurred and fights, but so far only one man has died as a result of the injuries he received. News Five’s Duane Moody travelled to the idyllic tourist destination, Hopkins Village where a social event on Boxing Day, ended in tragedy.

Duane Moody, Reporting

It was a brutal stabbing in Hopkins Village that claimed the life of seventeen year old Luke Dayton Nunez Junior. Sometime around seven p.m. on Boxing Day, Nunez and several other persons were socializing in front of Love on the Rocks Restaurant when a fight erupted between him and his killer. Nunez was stabbed three times with a knife: to the upper left and right side of the chest and on the top center of the head. Despite being injured and bleeding profusely, the victim made his way two hundred yards away from where he was stabbed and collapsed on the steps of this wash room belonging to Rufina Flores. Her daughter, Janet Lino, who was in a relationship with Nunez right up to his untimely death, says she couldn’t do anything to help him.

Voice of: Ernest Augustine, Friend of Deceased

“That man who stab ahn, had problems with ih car cross there by Sandy Beach and he need wah hand fi make dehn push the vehicle out. Luke mi thehave some good time—di barbecue and enjoying himself with friends—so he said no and the man cursed him. He say ih wah left that so.  The man gone dah beach and when he come back, Luke mi deh right across deh dah Love on the Rock and Luck come pan di side and talk to the man; not knowing tha the man had wah knife on ahn. Then he started to stab ahn right there.  I see the man who stab ahn run up so. I just hold ahn pan ih side and same time I mi di hold ahn pan one ah di stab weh ih got. And then I feel something di burn my hand. And I thought he was vomiting on me. And so I draw back and when I see my hand red, red, red.”

Janet Lino, Girlfriend of Deceased

“He mi di struggle fi walk dah mi house. He mussi mi wah see me, so I just come outside and I see him the struggle di walk to my house. When he di look fi stand up, the blood just pour outta ahn. So he just knock up pan the dryer. He mussi mi can’t take the pain. I tell mi ma that this lee bwai wah pass out. Ih can’t take the pain no more, dehn have to ker ahn dah hospital right now.”

Voice of: Rufina Flores, Resident

“I come downstairs and I find out that Luke was sitting down, bleeding. He wasn’t talking or anything. So I told the guys out there and told them to go and look for his mom and uncle to come and see him out here.”

Duane Moody

“He was bleeding profusely?”

Voice of: Rufina Flores

“Yeah he was bleeding.”

Duane Moody

“What did you hear happened?”

Janet Lino

Voice of: Rufina Flores

“Well to tell you what I hear. I only heard they stabbed him. I don’t know who is the person cause I wasn’t there. I only find him sitting down here bleeding.”

Janet Lino

“Dehn mi di have wah argument over some vehicle and he neva want help the man push the vehicle. So the man just make a big thing over it. he neva know that that mi wah happen. That the man mi wah come back—that he mi di look fi kill.”

Ellen Nunez

“Even though with that, he had no right to stab him up like that. It is not like a pig or a chicken or something that he is slaughtering.”

A.S.P. Mark Stevens, Dep. O.C., Dangriga Police

Mark Stevens

“About 8:55 p.m., Dangriga Police visited the Emergency Room at the Southern Regional Hospital where they saw Luke Nunez Jr., a seventeen year old laborer of Hopkins Village suffering from three stab wounds—one to the left side of the chest, one to the upper right side of the chest and another on the top center of the head. Nunez at the time was undergoing treatment during which he later succumbed to these injuries.”

By all accounts, the stabbing was as a result of a misunderstanding between Nunez and forty-eight year old Wilfred Garcia. Garcia’s vehicle got stuck in the sand near Sandy Beach Restaurant and he requested assistance from the youths in the immediate area. The boys refused to help and it is alleged that a now desperate and irate Garcia went back to his vehicle and armed himself with a knife which he used to fatally stab Nunez. He was seen running from the scene, but has since been detained by Dangriga police. The murder weapon was retrieved from where it was buried by Garcia.

A.S.P. Mark Stevens

“Our investigation so far has revealed that he was involved in some misunderstanding with one Wilfred Garcia from Hopkins Village. This misunderstanding took place apparently on the North Side of Hopkins and it was during this misunderstanding that he actually received those injuries we have since detained Wilfred Garcia, a forty-eight year old Belizean driver of Hopkins Village pending the investigation into this murder.”

Duane Moody

“The weapon, has it been recovered?”

A.S.P. Mark Stevens

“Yes the weapon has been recovered including the shirt that Mister Garcia had during the confrontation.”

Duane Moody

“He was arrested on the scene or later?”

A.S.P. Mark Stevens

“He was detained later, not at the scene.”

Ellen Nunez

Nunez was rushed to the Hopkins Polyclinic and then taken by ambulance to the Southern Regional Hospital; fighting for his life. Moments after being received by the doctors, Nunez succumbed to his injuries, says his aunt, Ellen Nunez.

Ellen Nunez, Aunt of Deceased

“I got a phone call saying that somebody had stabbed my nephew and that he was dead. I reacted like anybody else; I started screaming and then I said I will go at the health clinic to see what is going on. When we got to the clinic, he wasn’t dead. The doctor the nurse and the assistant was helping him. I noticed he had three wounds—one on the left chest, right chest and head. He was bleeding a lot and he was in a lot of pain. He repeatedly said, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe; please let me sit up so I can breathe. And she was like no you can’t sit down because they are trying to help you. Once I observed that he tried to get up and he pulled off everything. And then that’s when I saw one of the big wounds and the blood just started gushing out. They put him on the ambulance and they took him to Dangriga. I followed behind in my car with my dad and sisters. When we got to Sarawee, I called my brother and asked them if they were already at the hospital. And he said they just got there and they took him into the emergency. That was just a few minutes away from Dangriga. When we got to the hospital, we went into the parking lot, parked there and as we got out of the vehicle, I heard my brother Luke, his father, I heard him scream. So my sister said I think he is dead. So we ran over there and they told us that he had succumbed to the injuries.”

The blue rodeo, which was driven by Garcia, remains at the same location. However since the incident, the vehicle has been torched. Police investigation continues into the murder. Duane Moody for News Five.