As Ahmad is Buried, Family, Friends Seek ‘Real Answers’
Fareed Ahmad
The killing of Fareed Ahmad brings the murder count for 2017 to one hundred and forty-three, which is the deadliest year since 2012 when one hundred and forty-five homicides were recorded. Social media has been flooded with words of dismay, as well as condolences to the family at the untimely death of the thirty-eight-year-old. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The body of thirty-eight-year-old Fareed Haneef Ahmad was laid to rest this afternoon at his family home at mile seventeen on the George Price Highway, following a prayer service at the Mosque in Belize City. The well-known barber, while in the company of Woman Police Constable Michelle Brown, who is attached to the Special Assignment Team, was shot twice at close range as he drove his SUV through the village. The vehicle would then crash into an old pickup truck parked on the side of the highway. He died less than two hours later at the K.H.M.H., while Brown remains hospitalized under police guard. Even as he was buried today, the motive for his killing is unknown; and the family wants answers.
Taheera Ahmad
Taheera Ahmad, Sister of Deceased
“Unfortunately, what we also know is that yesterday morning, Fareed made a formal complaint to the police internal affairs office with Mister Williams and less than twelve hours later, my brother was ambushed and shot multiple times. Ominously, he was also accompanied by a female police officer from the same SAT Team. As far as we know—we are a very close-knit family; we live yards away from each other and we operate very closely. As far as we know, Fareed there was no tangible relationship with this person. And so even that for us has caused more questions than answers just as you have.”
Reporter
“So no explanation as to why she was in the vehicle with him last night?”
Taheera Ahmad
“The only information that we were given was her name and the fact that she was also a part of the team that Fareed had reported against or made a complaint against yesterday morning.”
Earlier this year, the court dismissed charges levied against the deceased following a pre-dawn raid of all family homes. In the operation, police took their electronic devices, travel documents and licensed weapons. The hellish and traumatic incident was carried out at the hands of officers attached to the Special Branch Unit of the Police Department.
Fareed Ahmad
Fareed Ahmad, Claims Unlawfully Arrest [June 22nd, 2016]
“With the invasion and raiding of six family homes and all our business establishments of hardworking and law-abiding Belizean families has paralyzed us with shock and disbelief. Not to mention the untold financial damages so far. We were subjected to ransack searches, seizures of our properties and intrusion of the most private, intimate areas…our bedrooms. This was all done in the presence of toddler and very young children, including of course our wives and our families. Their extreme and inhumane actions included false imprisonment, unlawful invasion of our homes, unlawful detention, kidnapping, invasion of our privacy, deprivation of our simple constitutional right to communicate with an attorney of our choice or any at all. And, very importantly, our religious liberty.”
Longtime family friend Cannon Leroy Flowers also chimed in on the unexpected killing of Fareed, despite the circumstance still not being ascertained. While he expressed condolences to the Ahmads, Flowers also called on police to provide the real answers to this latest homicide.
Leroy Flowers
Canon Leroy Flowers, Anglican Diocese
“Let me begin by expressing our profound condolences to the family. He is well known to my immediate family – my boys are always at his place; he loves my wife’s cooking; he’s just a wonderful individual, and so it was a real tragedy when we heard of his passing. But also, I would like to say to the wider public, there are also many others who have lost their lives this year in very tragic circumstances, who must be in much pain and anger. And unless the high command of the Police Force and the government of the day begin to provide answers to our people for the wanton killings that are going on, we will begin to fall into a sense of desperation; people will begin to take the law into their own hands; there is a total breakdown of the wider society and so it is really a tragedy. I am hoping that the Police command will provide the real answers for the family today. We cannot continue this – ‘investigation, nothing happens,’ nobody is held accountable – and that is very, very sad and very tragic at this time of the year. So to the family, we express our profound sympathy, and pray that the wider society at large, but [especially] those in authority will do the right thing in order to stem this tide and provide answers, because that’s what people want; answers to what is going on in the wider society. One person killed is one person too much.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
