Boledo vendor beaten to death in Belize City

So far this year we have had the grim task of reporting the murder of eleven Belizeans. While it was painful to recount the details of those crimes, tonight, murder number twelve is particularly traumatic. Just after seven p.m. on Thursday an elderly Belize City man was viciously beaten to death by a mob of men. Family members told News 5’s Jacqueline Woods the gruesome story.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Authorities strongly suspect Reynaldo Keen Smith was bludgeoned to death because the killer or killers wanted his licensed thirty-eight special and money. The seventy-five year old Boledo vendor had gone to the Bismark Club to sell tickets and it is believed he was attacked as he left the building to get into his car that was parked just in front of this small wooden building on Caesar Ridge Road. The attack was so vicious that the victim’s blood splattered onto the club’s ceiling and light fixture located several feet away from where Smith was killed.

Rita Smith, Wife

“That was so terrible to face. And as much as I am a woman, Miss Jackie but when I see blood, I just go from myself, I tell you the truth. But I say Miss Jackie that was a sin and shame because he is a seventy-five year old man and to beat him with a baseball bat and knock him ah inna his head with a crow bar, oh my heavens, oh that no easy…The blow in the head and with the bat all over his body and one of his hand was broken.”

This morning, Smith’s wife, sixty-four year old Rita Smith says she and her son visited the crime scene and became horrified by what she saw written on the club’s cement wall. Smith says the message which appeared to have been written in her husband’s blood said, God Help Me. It’s not certain who wrote the message, but Smith believes her husband was killed by someone who knew he had a weapon and cash on him. Smith says she always feared that one day they would attack her husband, but says he always told her not to worry.

Rita Smith

“No longer than Monday night when he came home, he said, you know what…he call me Mrs. Smith and I call him Mr. Smith, and he said, you know what happen Ms. Smith, I seh no, tell me. He seh, two bwai stand up and they watch me, they were on bicycle. I seh, I tell you noh go sell round dah area because it dangerous. He seh, that noh wah happen, I have mi gun. I seh, Mr. Smith you have that gun, but they bwai out deh have bigger gun than the one you have. And I seh, you know when the thing happen, right yah the police wah have to come, right yah me wah have to face it.”

Beside Smith’s body, the police found his Boledo book, but a black bag containing the gun and money was missing. The police say eyewitnesses to the incident have reported that it was a group of young men who attacked Smith. But his widow says she has heard other accounts.

Rita Smith

“Because when my son called, they said that in Stann Creek they hear differently, they hear that dah wah set a gangs. And I tell my son, well I hear it was just one man strapping and have on some strongman shirt or something like that. I tell ah, I noh know, when things like that happen you hear all kinds of things.”

While Smith hopes those responsible will be brought to justice, today Rita Smith begins the difficult journey of living life without her friend and partner. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.

At news time tonight, no suspects had been detained for the murder of Reynaldo Smith.