Elderly Cayo watchman beaten; assailant on the run

The next bit of crime news did not involve a gun … or even a knife. But the injuries suffered by the victim were nearly fatal. News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin reports from San Ignacio on the hideous assault of a senior citizen by a well known young criminal who remains on the run.

Anna Chan, Daughter
?Why young guys would attack an old man like that? If they wanted his money they could held him because he is old and they were three. There was no need for them to beat him in that way they did it.?

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
It is hard to imagine the horror that eighty year old Celestino Salas felt as he was viciously beaten in the head and face by a man San Ignacio police say would have killed the popular watchman. Around eleven on Friday night, Salas was at his usual downtown location by Edd?s jewellery when he reportedly heard noises coming from the rear of the building. As Salas walked to the back of the shop he was suddenly attacked. There was nothing Salas could have done to protect himself as he was hit repeatedly to the head, face, neck and mouth. Fortunately, police patrol in the area heard the commotion and rushed to the scene just in time to catch the assailant assaulting the elderly man. The suspect has been identified as seventeen year old Rolando Lisbey a well known robber currently out on bail for a similar crime. The problem is although police had Lisbey in their grasp he managed to escape from them and is on the run.

Anna Chan says when she first saw her father she could hardly recognized him. He was semi conscious, bloody and bleeding badly from his face, ears and mouth.

Anna Chan
?I couldn?t recognize him, he was bleeding so bad. Well swollen and it was all of a sudden. I couldn?t believe my eyes what I was seeing.?

Almost one week later Salas is suffering from memory and hearing loss. Police say because they know Lisbey to be a robber and not a burglar they do not believe he was attempting to break in to the business establishment. According to Chan after her father was beaten, the attacker stole two hundred dollars from him. The weekly salary he had just received.

Anna Chan
?I don?t know what they could get out of beating an old person like that except for breaking into the place where he works or either just go with his money he had that?s all. Because to say that he had problems before with them he doesn?t even know who they are so I really can?t tell.?

San Ignacio police say Rolando Lisbey should be considered dangerous. But as authorities look for their most wanted man another disturbing story has emerged from the incident. Chan claims after she received word from the police about the assault and rushed to the San Ignacio hospital to see her father, Chan says she was shocked that upon her arrival he was not there.

Anna Chan
?The security there told us he is already gone, so I was surprised. And I said this is not that serious if they discharged him then it?s not serious, but when we got home it was my son-in-law that brought him home. Because he was downtown and he got the news so he went to the hospital and there he was waiting for someone to bring him home. So I got there, no nurse, no doctor in the office they were no where to be found?

Chan says at the hospital she was told that all the doctors and nurses were tending to another case in the emergency room and that when she returned home she found Salas suffering in his bedroom.

Anna Chan
?To me there needs to be someone to receive any other patient that reaches there but no one was there. There he was thrown on the bed bleeding and I said, oh no, this can?t be like that. A person like this needed to be attended but they just gave him some pills for pain and infection and they just released him.?

Today Salas continues to receive treatment from a private practitioner. The family says they do not know if he will fully recover from his injuries but one thing they do know is that they want justice.

Anna Chan
?We our family, as Christians, we just pray that justice is served!?

Salas had worked as a watchman for fifteen years. Jacqueline Godwin for News Five.

If you know the whereabouts of seventeen year old Ronaldo Lisbey please call the nearest police station or Crime Stoppers at 0-800-922-TIPS.