Robbers target barbershop in Belize City

In another crime, a barbershop was robbed around three Tuesday afternoon in Belize City. Patrons say that three masked men entered the East Canal side business and robbed businessman Haissam Al Bathish of his nine millimeter Sig Sauer brand pistol along with eight nine millimeter rounds. Other patrons were robbed of two cellular phones and one hundred dollars. And according to others, there doesn’t have to be another dangerous gun on the street because the incident could have been avoided. A patron who was at the barbershop told us in an off-camera interview that police officers who were in the area before the robbery may have unintentionally provoked the incident.

Voice of Bystander
“A red vehicle pull and park pan East Canal beside dis Bishop Street bridge and dis Lebanese looking fella step out and police dehn came up to ah and start search di man. I si dehn tek out di man weapon from di right hand side ah ih pants waist, took di weapon apart; di clip, di head, and from di distance weh I mi deh I could ah mi si dat dehn ask ah fi ih particulars. So ih tek out ih wallet and give dehn ih whatever dehn ask ah fa. Dehn write down weh dehn had to write down and fi wah good ten minutes or so di whole ordeal tek place.”

Jose Sanchez
“What was wrong with that scene in your opinion?”

Voice of Bystander
“I honestly think that—especially from di looks ah di person—yoh could ah mi tell dat dis dah noh wah regular person weh commit normal crime yoh know and deh inna wah vehicle weh look like something modern. And fi di police dehn ker di man through dah ordeal dah kind ah way, I think dehn kind ah wrong and dehn just mek di man wah target to di guys out inna di street weh di look fi any lee break fi dehn thing. Especially how dehn expose di man weapon and thing like dat and I could ah mi tell more or less dat ih had a license fi it. So if dehn mi want search di man or question di man, dehn could ah ker ah down dah station or escort ah down to di station or do it somewhere private.”

Jose Sanchez
“Were you surprised at what happened next?”

Voice of Bystander
“Not really because I was just mentioning it to some ah di friends weh I mi deh wid; dat dehn di have dis man open as target to criminals.”

The police press officer, Clement Palacio says that he never received any report about Al Bathish being searched by officers before the barber shop was held up by the three armed and masked men.