June is deadliest month with 16 murders

It was the single most deadly month in recent memory…and we can only give thanks that the calendar has turned a page. Beginning with Rubita Oroman Hernandez on the first and ending with Rodney August on the twenty-eighth, a total of sixteen people were victims of homicide during June. The tally included seven in the Belize District, four in Orange Walk, three in Cayo and one each in Corozal and Stann Creek. In approximately half of the cases, suspects have been charged. For the first six months of the year, we count forty-three murders, compared to sixty-three for all of 2003. Lest we make the mistake of thinking that deadly violence is something new, we should note that police statistics indicate that in 2002 eighty-seven homicides were committed across Belize.