Crime news: possible murder, drowning, robbery

The death of a Toledo man is being investigated and may be a case of murder. On Sunday afternoon, the body of forty-nine year old Alfonso Che was discovered near a bus stop in San Antonio Village. Reports are that Che had been drinking heavily with friends earlier in the day and had left the group to walk home. Police have detained a number of people for questioning while Che’s corpse awaits a post mortem at Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga.

A Honduran resident of Cowpen in the Stann Creek District has died, apparently of drowning. Twenty-seven year old Franz Gaertner was on a fishing trip Friday afternoon with two friends in the Swasey River. Those companions told police that Gaertner, who was in the river diving, went under the water but did not resurface. Police were called, but the body was not found until Saturday morning, in the vicinity of where Gaertner was last scene. There were no marks of violence on the body and police do not suspect foul play.

Passengers on a Cayo bus had a harrowing experience on Saturday as a gang of would be bandits shot at their vehicle when it refused to stop at a roadblock. According to police reports, Luis Cruz was driving an Ortega’s bus from Santa Familia toward Bullett Tree when three masked men with guns stepped out into the road in front of him. Cruz declined to stop and instead sped up. The gunman did not take kindly to the move and proceeded to fire on the bus as it raced past them. As a result, eleven-year-old Orish Rivera was wounded by a gunshot in the right ankle while seven-year-old Ixian Perez received cuts in the face from window glass shattered by the gunfire. Police are questioning several people, but as yet no arrests have been made. The three gunmen are described as being of Hispanic appearance.