5 months pregnant, woman shot to death
It’s about as disturbing as a crime scene can get…a young mother, her unborn child still in her womb, lying on the floor of her own house, blood pouring from a gunshot wound to her chest. Standing over her dying body are three of her children, the youngest just five years old. And the man holding the smoking gun is the person they’ve called stepfather for two years. That’s the grim discovery police made around five thirty on Saturday evening at the home of Irene Gibson and Lloyd Brakeman, located at the corner of Baghdad and Alexandria Streets in Belize City. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Twenty-nine year old Lloyd Brakeman told police he was playing with his three fifty seven magnum revolver when it went off and accidentally killed his pregnant common law wife. But the family of thirty-six year old Irene Gibson believes that their loved one was murdered. While police would not comment on their investigation, they have charged Brakeman with murder, keeping a prohibited firearm and keeping an unlicensed ammunition.
G.Michael Reid, Police Press Officer
?This is a subject of change once the DPP has fully reviewed the file. So this in the end will be the DPP?s decision to make, whether or not the charge of murder would stand or whether it was an accident or homicide as such. The fact that she was pregnant, whether the child was far enough along to be considered a person, the situation I think will have to be considered here. But certainly because he is charged for one count of murder, if the DPP reviews the file and decides that there should be an additional charge here, taking into consideration that child also lost his or her life as a result of the incident then the charge is subject to change.?
News 5 understands the single gun blast caught Gibson in the chest and knocked the expectant mother off her feet. She landed on her back near this door. Equally disturbing is the fact that Gibson was shot in front of three of her young children. A post mortem examination has revealed that at the time of her death, Gibson was five months pregnant. There was nothing doctors could have done to save her unborn child.
Jacqueline Woods
?But why would Brakeman want to kill his common law wife and child? It?s a troubling question that authorities have been trying to answer. In his defence, Brakeman says he did not intentionally shoot Gibson, but that the weapon accidentally discharged. The deceased family is not buying the story.?
Voice of Agnes Gibson
?We convinced that–I think that he killed her and I want to ask him, why? He does not know what he did to the family. He no know he, he no know.?
The victim?s sister, Agnes Gibson, who did not wish to appear on camera, told News Five that although Irene did not say anything to them, they know that there was trouble in the relationship.
Voice of Agnes Gibson, Sister of Deceased
?I no know, I no know, she never told us anything, but I knew that something was a wrong because when she use to come to my house, she looked stressed, she looked depressed. She was not the same happy, laughing person who I used to know. And I knew something was wrong. I knew it. There are things I saw but I never told her because I was afraid if I had told her it would cause a conflict. But if I only knew I should have told her?
At the scene, police recovered one unlicensed three fifty seven revolver and four live rounds of point thirty-eight ammunition. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
Thirty-six year old Irene Gibson leaves behind six children all between the ages of five and fifteen years old. The family says Brakeman and Gibson had lived together for two years.
