Where is Alaine Garcia and What Happened to Him?
Alaine Garcia
Tonight, Alaine Garcia, a resident of Hattieville, remains missing, and his family believes something bad may have happened to him. The former Belize City resident was last seen on Tuesday taking his children to catch the bus to school, but on his way back home, gunshots rang out. But his family says police made a critical error that caused them to believe he had been detained in the wake of the incident. He has made no contact and today a search of the immediate area began in earnest. News Five’s Aaron Humes was there and has this report.
Aaron Humes, Reporting
Police descended on the southern end of Sylvester Boulevard, the main street of Hattieville village, around eleven this morning. They were there to help search for Alaine Garcia, a Hattieville resident who seemingly vanished on his way back from a routine errand three days ago.
Voice of: Kellyn Neal, Common-Law Wife
“I immediately got on the phone and I called the Hattieville Police Station and spoke to Corporal Hyde, who told me that – when I asked him if Alaine Garcia was detained – told me yes, but he’s at the Ladyville Police Station. So I was contented because I knew that he didn’t get shot or anything – police had him. The next day I asked my best friend to check on him because she lives in Ladyville; she told me he had already been released. So I stayed up Wednesday night, waiting, waiting; he did not come home. I called his phone, he didn’t answer. Something wasn’t settling right with me, because I know if police had him, he always found a way to text or to call and let me know that he’s okay, he’s detained, but I didn’t receive anything from him. So the Wednesday when she told me he was released; he didn’t come home. The Thursday morning, I made it my business and I went to visit the Ladyville Police Station. Upon reaching there I spoke with the police; they were telling me he was released from Monday; but the shooting incident did not happen Monday; it happened Tuesday. So the story wasn’t adding up.”
Neal says Hattieville police showed her a photograph of a man they had detained whose name was Garcia, but right away she knew it wasn’t Alaine. There was no record of him signing out from either the Ladyville or Hattieville Police Station, and according to officers she spoke with, no one came to report a shooting incident. Nonetheless, she is convinced that Garcia came to harm.
Voice of: Kellyn Neal
“Now the police know that they and the media, they don’t have a good relationship. They can’t expect someone to walk up to them and say ‘oh, this young man get shot,’ they need to do their investigation. Come to find out that my common-law wasn’t detained any at all – or so they say, that it wasn’t him because the pictures I am seeing of this Alaine Garcia, it’s not him. So I started to put it together, and said if this incident happened about seven-thirty to seven-thirty-six, that’s the time when he is walking back from taking my kids to catch the bus. Because they go and catch the bus quarter to seven, and the bus comes quarter past seven, and it’s a fifteen-minute walk from the roadside to my house back. And then when I continued to ask round the village, eyewitnesses are telling me that when the gunshots rang off, they saw him run. So my speculation is that he probably got shot and because the area is very big, he probably ran in the bush and collapsed and can’t make it out back. So from yesterday, we’ve been searching, looking around; we’ve seen a couple of ‘jankros’ flying around but we haven’t smelt anything, or we haven’t found anything as yet.”
Neal says that if Garcia is alive, she wants to hear from him. She told us that he may have been targeted because of his past. And she blames police in Rural Eastern Division for wasting critical time.
Voice of: Kellyn Neal
“The reason we moved up here, is because a couple of months ago our house was burned down – someone literally set the house and his car on fire. We don’t know who. Police had him in custody, they’ve done some sort of mediation. I know he has some rivalry with the P.I.V. gang, but of lately it looks like it was settled – I can’t tell, because these young men nowadays, like they don’t want anything to go to rest. So we’ve relocated from City to come up here, but it looks like you can never get rid of trouble; it just follows you. So I don’t know, really and truly I can’t tell. The Police Department – I am a little upset with them at this time. Because if they had done proper investigation, then I would have known that from Tuesday morning he was missing. I didn’t know he was missing until Thursday; I couldn’t confirm he was missing until Thursday. Today is now Friday; for all I know, he could be dead somewhere. When I called, they could have given me proper information and paid attention to details as police officers. So I am really upset with them right now, because they need to stop play around with people’s lives and take their jobs seriously. Because when I called they told me he was detained, [I came] to find out it wasn’t him. If they knew that two gang members came up here and a shooting happened, gang members just won’t come up here and shoot in the air and not shoot at nothing or no one, it has to be someone they are shooting at. So I believe they did not properly investigate and that is the reason up to now that I am not finding my common-law.”
Aaron Humes reporting for News Five.
Garcia stands about six feet five inches, dark-complexioned and slim built, with no distinguishing marks. He was last seen wearing long black sweatpants with white stripes on the side, black tennis shoes and a long-sleeved white polo shirt. If you have seen him or have any information on what happened to him, kindly contact Neal at 602-6571 or Garcia’s mother at 664-9031.
