A Weekend Murder in Roaring Creek, 6 Men Arrested

Six persons are tonight in custody following the murder of a Belmopan resident. Luis Ortiz and Juan Gonzales were ambushed inside Ortiz vehicle and taken to an area near the Roaring Creek cemetery. Gonzales was badly beaten but he played dead and that saved his life. Ortiz’s body was found within eight hours in the Belize River near the village of Camalote. Gonzales goes one-on-one with News Five’s Duane Moody and recounts his ordeal.

Duane Moody, Reporting

A brutal attack by at least four men in the Belmopan jurisdiction has left one man dead and another wounded. Around one a.m. on Sunday morning, forty- year-old Jose Gonzales and thirty-nine-year old Luis Ortiz left La Cabana Night Club in Belmopan. They were reportedly providing a ride to a friend from Teakettle Village when three other men jumped in the back seat of Ortiz’s green Chevy prism. The men made their way towards the Roaring Creek Cemetery where Gonzales and Ortiz were physically assaulted.

Voice of: Jose Gonzales, Wounded

“We gone dah La Cabanita and then from there, dehn guy gone into the disco gone dance and thing, but I mi deh dah the bar; I never gone into the disco. Then like one o’clock we decided to go and then the guy jump ina the car and then somebody get a ride. We pick up the man and I gone on the back seat and then three brown skin guys gone into the vehicle. From there, we gone to the area from Roaring Creek. By in front of the cemetery the thing come out. They started to fight with me cause I was in the back. They started to knock me on the face, they took me out of the car and out me on the ground. After that I play like I dead. After that dehn search me and took my documents and everything.”

Gonzales was taken out of the vehicle and stomped multiple times; he begged for his life before rolling into the nearby bushes. He later called the police for help.

Voice of: Jose Gonzales

“I mi feel like I mi wah die…like dehn mi wah kill me or something. So I ask dehn bwai dehn don’t try to kill me cause I got family cause I was worrying about my family. So after that I just come ina the place and the man give me wah help and I appreciate that. I got wah…I noh think dehn bruk mi hand, but I got something ina my head. That was the first knock weh dehn give me.”

Duane Moody

“What did they hit you with?”

Voice of: Jose Gonzales

“I think with wah pint and then from there I stay on the ground and pan my face and then on my back and all that. I run down from the side of the road to move from the area and I gone in and ask for a lee help and then the police dehn come and I get ina the vehicle and they bring me to the hospital.”

Stephanie Grinage

Insp. Stephanie Grinage, Deputy O.C., Belmopan Police Formation

“Around three a.m., police responded to a distress call in Roaring Creek Village. On arrival in an area in Roaring Creek by the cemetery, police found a young man with several injuries to the body. He was taken to the Western Regional Hospital and was treated for some wounds that he obtained and was later released.”

Around five a.m., police were called out to the river where the vehicle was found almost submerged in the river in the Young Bank area near the Agripino Cawich Bridge in Camalote Village. The keys were still in the ignition and a rock had been lodged on the gas pedal, but Ortiz was nowhere to be found. Several hours after, his body would be discovered floating upstream.

Insp. Stephanie Grinage

“They were taken to an area in Roaring Creek where they were attacked and his friend’s car, stolen…he was robbed and his car taken away from him. Later on in the day, searches in the immediate area found the car in the Young Bank area with no body. About ten-forty-five, the body of Mister Ortiz was found in an area near the Agripino Cawich Bridge.”

The investigation is young and a motive for the murder is still unknown.

Voice of: Jose Gonzales

“I noh know why…I noh know what they bwai have from him. After all like I tell yo dehn left me right there soh and from there, I noh know what happened afterwards.”

Insp. Stephanie Grinage

“At this time we have six persons detained for further investigation.”

Duane Moody

“The murder weapon? What is believed to have been used to kill him?”

Insp. Stephanie Grinage

“At this time, we are uncertain what had been used to kill the young man.”

Duane Moody for News Five.

Belmopan Police have since detained a forty-one year old resident of Young Gal Road in Teakettle Village and five others—ages nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-four, thirty-eight and forty-eight—all of Roaring Creek Village pending further investigation into the murder.