Three city shootings mar weekend
Belize City police are still trying to determine the cause of a shooting that occurred at the Texaco gas station at the corner of Cemetery Road and Central American Boulevard. At the time of the incident there were at least three persons on the compound including twenty-two year old Paul Lopez, the gas attendant; forty-one year old Lawrence McKoy, a farmer who had just pulled into the station to get fuel for his truck; and thirty-seven year old Wayne Davis, the driver of a red Toyota car. According to authorities, they have been receiving conflicting reports as to what exactly transpired, but what they do know is that around nine-thirty on Saturday night two armed men held up Lopez for a hundred dollars. It is not certain why after grabbing the cash the robbers opened fire, but the shots caught McKoy in the upper left thigh and Davis in the left arm and right side of the buttocks. While the gunmen managed to get away, during a search of the crime scene police made a surprising discovery. Authorities would not say what led them to search the car of one of the shooting victims, but inside Davis’s vehicle they found a parcel containing what resembled cocaine weighing a total of two and a half pounds. A further check of the powdery substance, however, revealed that it was not in fact a controlled drug at all. Today police are trying to determine whether or not the discovery of what seems to be fake drugs had anything to do with the shooting incident. McKoy and Davis have since been released from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. This afternoon Davis was charged under an obscure section of the law that refers to possessing substances that are not what they appear to be.
They looked to be barely into their teens and perhaps that is why businessman Shi Xian Mei did not suspect anything when two young men entered Likee Shop on Police Street around five-thirty on Saturday evening and ordered mint sweets. But as Shi was giving the candy to his customers, one of them suddenly grabbed his arm while the other assailant pulled out a handgun and fired a single shot. The bullet caught Shi in his lower right buttocks, but the bang also caused the would-be robbers to panic and they fled the area on bicycles. Nothing was stolen and police say they have detained one person for questioning and are looking for another.
Twenty-four year old Cyril Jones remains in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital suffering from a bullet wound to the left side of the abdomen. Jones was shot around eleven-forty on Friday night as he stood on Kraal Road waiting for his girlfriend. He told authorities it was a young man who passed by on a bicycle that shot him. It is not certain if Jones knows his assailant, but police say they have detained one person in connection with the incident.
