3 Shot in Belize City; Gang Associations May be to Blame

While shy of the record set four years ago, the count of one hundred and thirty-six murders as of this evening is still a heavy toll. Eastern Division South, according to its commander Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, is the only division to record less murder this year than in 2015, a surprise were it not for the hard work done by officers to visit communities and fight various fires caused by gangs. But on the eve of a new year, the toll could have been increased, following a triple shooting attack on Thursday evening.  Police say it was visited against men they say had no obvious connection to criminal activities in Belize City. The three victims were at work on a vehicle at a mechanic shop on Jane Usher Boulevard around five-forty in the evening when two armed men opened fire on them. Fifty-year-old Winston Bowen of a Jane Usher Boulevard address was shot to the hip; eighteen-year-old Quincy Smith, a messenger with the Police Department, was shot to the thigh and back, and thirty-two-year-old Robert Garnett was shot to the hip, leg, elbow, arm and neck. Smith has been released after treatment at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital while Bowen and Garnett remain in stable condition. Now police investigators are questioning whether the men’s associations had a role to play in the triple shooting.

Chester Williams

ACP Chester Williams, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“They are relatives; they were working on a vehicle in the yard when the two gunmen arrived.”

Reporter

“Are any of the victims believed to be the target at this time, sir?”

ACP Chester Williams

“At this time we cannot say exactly who the intended target was; but the gunmen opened fire indiscriminately among the trio, and they received the injuries that I had identified earlier.”

Reporter

“Is there any information that police have at this time [as to] the motive of the attack; what caused these men to target this particular mechanic shop?”

ACP Chester Williams

“The investigation is still in its [infancy] stage and we are still trying to ascertain a motive; but it is difficult for the simple fact that the three men are not known to police in the sense [of] them being gang-affiliated; but we know that in the streets, people beef for simple things; sometimes you look at a man too hard, and he wants to kill you.”

Reporter

“Is it perhaps that any of the three gentlemen are related to persons who may have enemies?”

ACP Chester Williams

“Yes, we do, that is one angle that we are looking at. We know for sure that two of them are affiliated with a known gang figure. We are hoping that is not a situation where [if] you can’t catch Harry you catch his shirt. So we will look at it and see where the investigation takes us; we have no suspects at this time; we are hoping that the public will assist us with any information they may have that could aid the investigation in moving forward.”

ACP Williams noted that police have a checkpoint a block away – but never on Jane Usher Boulevard itself – and a roving vehicular patrol in the area. That has now been augmented by additional patrols put in place since the incident. We will have more on the re-organization of patrols in a later story. According to the Regional Commander, the victims have spoken to police but have not indicated that they knew who their attackers were.