“Old beef” prompts murder in Lord’s Bank

An old beef. That’s the familiar motive for the nation’s most recent homicide. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports from Lord’s bank Village.

Khadijah Castillo, Sister of the Deceased
?I wouldn?t want to wish bad for the family. I no have no problem with the family, because I would never, ever want that. Nobody else have to go through this like what my family and me the go through. So we will just have to bury my brother and maybe they are please now, the young boy weh kill him happy. Maybe they can rest now and thing, but he never had no reason to kill him.?

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Twenty-one year old Heston Castillo went to Lord?s Bank Village to see if the mother of his two month old baby would allow him to spend time with his child but was told the baby was at the caye. Castillo decided to leave for Belize City, but on his way out of the neighbourhood he stopped by a friend?s residence to visit. That is when nineteen-year-old Andre Swaso, the baby?s uncle, arrived at the house and started an argument with Castillo. According to one eyewitness, who did not wish to appear on camera, it is clear that Castillo did not want to get involved in a dispute and tried to walk away. That is when Swaso reportedly took out his handgun and shot Castillo in his head.

Voice of Eyewitness
?The guy that got shot wasn?t talking; he was just like trying to move away. And then I think he saw the gun and he tried to wrestle with him to take away the gun. And when the guy with the gun got a chance to get his hands free, that is when I heard the shots. But it was a small gun so you could not even see it from far, you just heard the shots and I saw the other guy holding his neck and his face and then he just dropped and the other guy just got on his bike and rode off.?

Khadijah Castillo says she was just around the corner sitting inside the vehicle waiting for her brother, but she became concerned when he did not return.

Khadijah Castillo
?The boy that they say killed him, he passed me on bicycle and I watched him and he just look on me and he passed. And minutes later he pass back and look on me the same way and I am sitting right there and I noh even know that he just killed my brother.?

Two of the three shots caught Castillo in the neck and behind the left ear. It is believed the third bullet bore through the front screen door of the house and ripped passed this living room sofa before it finally dropped to the floor. Makesha Suazo–no relation to Andre–says she had just moved her four-year-old son from the front steps where he was sitting when she heard the gunshots.

Makesha Suazo, Neighbour
I wasn?t terrified for myself; I was more scared for my kids because when they heard the shots they ran. So am I was not sure if they had gotten shot, because they ran and I so was scared for them, not for myself.?

Andre Swaso has been charged with murder. The eyewitness says Swazo approached Castillo in a threatening manner.

Voice of Eyewitness
?He was just telling him like don?t mess with him, don?t mess with him, he will hurt him, you know he was just like talking crazy.?

Khadijah Castillo
?I know he took a lot of abuse from that family and he just stick right there, just for that little baby that he has there, he just stay right there. I know because he always come tell me, ?D that lee bwai [Swaso] lone trip on me.? I said get out of that family Heston, keep far. He says he has to be there for his baby and say okay, fine. All the time, and then I tell him why you no go try and talk–cause the young boy harass, threaten him all the time, but I never think it would go so far.?

The deceased is the son of Enita Castillo, the former principal of Gwen Lizarraga High School, who is presently studying in the United States. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.