In Belmopan, Young Security Guard Shot Dead over Dispute

Samuel Mendez

Early this morning, a resident of the Riviera Area in Belmopan was murdered as he chopped a yard. Twenty-year-old Samuel Mendez was shot several times to the body by a gun man. Mendez, a security guard, ran up the street but did not survive the shooting. One person is in detention but the motive for the murder appears to have been triggered by a previous dispute. News Five’s Andrea Polanco reports.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Four gun shots pierced the silence in the Costa Rica Extension here in Salvapan around seven-thirty this morning. Some of those bullets hit twenty-year old Samuel Mendez. The Belmopan resident was here cutting the grass here in this empty lot that belongs to a relative – but little did he know there was someone after him.

Alice Mendez

Alice Mendez, Sister of Murder Victim

“He went and chop my cousin yard. He always do it. Like every two to three weeks he go chop the yard right and that is when they told me that something happened to him. When I gone check I just saw that he was already dead there. He was lying on the ground and the police were already there.”

Andrea Polanco

“What have you heard from the neighbours around there? Did they hear anything? Did they see anything?”

Alice Mendez

“They just hear the gun shots. That is all they said. They see him running but nobody couldn’t help him. That is it – they are saying they didn’t see the person that did it.”

Andrea Polanco

“In terms of him being there – do you think someone was following him or someone knew his whereabouts to go out there and kill him?”

Alice Mendez

“It look like because how did they know that he was there chopping this morning? Only he mi deh by himself – only he gone by himself on his cycle so maybe somebody mi know or somebody si ah round and that’s when it happen.”

Neighbours say that Mendez tried to get away from his killer. He was shot several times to the upper body, but he ran up this street to try to get help but he never made it. It was here where he collapsed and died. But his family is clueless as to why he was killed.

Andrea Polanco

“Why do you think he was killed?”

Alice Mendez

“I don’t know, ma’am. I really don’t know why they did it to him.”

Andrea Polanco

“Was he involved in any argument or problems with anyone? Did he have conflict with anyone?”

Alice Mendez

“As far as I know, no, but then I don’t know what he was into. Like what I tell you, he comes here and he lives here with me but I don’t know about his troubles or anything. He is a very silent person and keeps things to himself. He has lots of friends. So, I don’t know nothing.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, he never mentioned if “

Alice Mendez

“No. He never did say anything to anybody.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, you guys found his cycle and his weed cutter and all of that?”

Alice Mendez

“Yes. We found everything. The police give us everything back.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, it wasn’t a case of maybe they tried to rob him or anything like that?”

Alice Mendez

“Nothing like that. They just went and shoot him and that was it. They wanted to kill him and they killed him.”

Howell Gillett

Belmopan Police say that it appears that Mendez was killed because of an old conflict. There are limited details as to what the “old beef” is about – but one person has already been detained.

Sr. Supt. Howell Gillett, O.C., Belmopan Police

“We have person in custody and we are seeking another person. The investigation, you will appreciate, is still in its early stage but what it’s looking like is that the deceased might have had some issues with a pair of male individuals and we believe that they went back to retaliate on him. That is one theory at the moment. It is not conclusive because we are at the initial stage but we will continue to investigate. There are some house searches that have been done. Statements have been recorded and I am sure we will get behind it because our officers are out in full force to try to bring closure to this case.  As a matter of fact, he works for the security alliance which works for the U.S. Embassy. There is nothing adverse against him that we know of. It seems he had an issue but I don’t think it was reported to the police. We are just getting to know this and if we had known about it, we would have intervened from the very beginning to try to stem it.”

The Mendez family says that the security guard was on the straight and narrow – but it seems that there was a curve in his path that no one saw.

Alice Mendez

“From since he get his job at Security Alliance, he changed a lot. He was starting to get more responsible and into his job trying to change his self and maybe if he was into something bad he was changing his life and he was getting to be a very responsible person these days here.   It is very hard. To me it was very hard because I was his sister that was always there for him. Everything he needed, he asked me for it and if I could give him, I give him. I helped him all the way through college and until now this happened to him and it is very hard for me.”

Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.