Robberies plague Belize City residents

Police are still looking for a pair of men who robbed a downtown store in Belize City Wednesday afternoon. According to the cops, just after one p.m., a lone gunman entered Jem’s Used Clothing on Albert Street and robbed the owner and customers of jewellery and cash. The men got away with more than nine hundred dollars in cash, a watch and six gold chains. At news time tonight, no suspects had been detained.

But the cops did bust another young man, who tried the same stunt on Raccoon Street Extension Thursday night. According to the victim, he was approached by a man armed with a handgun, who robbed him of jewellery and cash. Luckily, a mobile police patrol in the area got a description of the assailant and within minutes spotted the thief. A chase ensued, which ended in what is believed to be the perpetrator’s home. There, police found a handgun, six rounds of ammo and the missing money and jewellery. Twenty-four year old Enner Humes has since been charged with keeping an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, robbery and aggravated assault.

Meanwhile, police are investigating a report made by a Belize City businessman on Thursday, which ended in a shooting. According to forty-eight year old Jose Ortiz, just after five that evening he was shocked to hear that someone was stealing goods from his store, located near the flag monument on the Northern Highway. When Ortiz arrived at the scene, he found two men loading his merchandise into a waiting taxi. Reports are that the men turned on Ortiz, who then pulled out his licensed nine-millimetre pistol and fired a warning shot. Ortiz says one of the thieves was scared off, but the other kept coming at him and he had no choice but to shoot the man in the hip. Both the taxi driver and the injured man have been taken into custody, but police have yet to detain the third suspect involved.