6 Murders over Weekend; 2 Women Shot in Tibruce Street Home as Family Blame “Old Beef”

Delcia Blanco & Theresita Flowers

The soul of the nation was on edge, beginning on Friday evening when the carnage started around six-thirty. Within a span of twenty-four hours, five persons were murdered and several other shooting incidents occurred in the city. In Orange Walk, a sixth person was killed. Now, every murder is horrible, but the double murder of two women at a time when women are being celebrated, shows the low level to which violence has sunk in our nation.  The two women were inside a house on Tibruce Street in Belize City when a gunman emptied his firearm. Theresita Flowers and Delcia Blanco expired instantly, while two others including a minor were injured. News Five’s Isani Cayetano has been following this story and finds that friends and family have been coping with the murder of another woman. Here is his story.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

On the day of Bernadine Lauriano’s funeral, several hours after her interment at the Lord Ridge Cemetery, death would come knocking at another woman’s door in a form of street-style justice that takes its cue directly from Hammurabi’s Code.  In this case, the lives of two persons, a mother and a teenage girl, were taken when a gunman exacted vengeance on the unsuspecting occupants of this mobile home on Tibruce Street.  Sometime around seven o’clock on Saturday night, a hail of bullets showered the residence, as the killer took aim at his objectives.  All four suffered varying degrees of injuries, Theresita Flowers and Delcia Blanco perishing at the scene of the deadly shooting.

Andrea Tucker

Andrea Tucker, Daughter of Deceased

“When I decide fi come I sih di crowd and everything and I seh well, I know my mom is in the house.  I know ih get shot but all I could seh well, ih get shot but ih noh dead.  That’s eena my mind, yoh know.  So when she come, when I came and officer was right there at the gate standing, weh I know, and I tell ahn it’s my mom and I wahn go een, I wahn go een.  Ih seh yoh cyant go een.  Ih seh, “Yoh ma neva mek it.”

Neither did the seventeen-year-old girl.  She was shot in the middle of the forehead.  Flowers, presumably witnessing what had just transpired, attempted to flee her attacker.  That effort was futile.

Andrea Tucker

“I observed the first body at the door.  My mother was within the refridge and her corridor.  So you could know that she was running for her life because she get shot eena ih back.  She get shot eena ih back, soh yoh know she mi di run fi her life.”

Also injured during the attack were sixteen-year-old Shaniqua Ramclam and nineteen-year-old Daniel Hughes, both to a lesser extent.  The incident, it is believed, may have been an act of reprisal for Lauriano’s murder one week earlier.  The bitter enmity, both families agree, dates back to 2013.

Isani Cayetano

“This happened, as you said, because perhaps her son was involved…”

Joe Lauriano

Joe Lauriano, Brother of Deceased

“Have beef with next friends, yes.  And then ih just bring di problem home, like secretly.  That da weh kids do.  So fu all mothers out deh, [dehn] haffu watch dehn kids because ih noh tek you long fi do something and come right home.”

In this case, Andrea Tucker believes that her nephew, who has been embroiled in a longstanding feud with Lauriano’s son, was in fact the intended target of the shooting.

Theresita Flowers

Andrea Tucker

“My knowledge, and I believe in mind, da wahn revenge killing due to the lady that got shot back there, Lauriano.  It’s a revenge killing.  They say like, eena di streets, wahn ma fi wah ma. I di seh it out, I di seh it out.  I know my nephew, I noh di tek up fi ahn because da something weh we been through, di try fight with my nephew fi mek ih calm ihself, stay outta problem and, yoh know dehn way.  If yoh heng with di wrong crowd, yoh cyant ketch Harry, yo ketch ih shirt.  That da weh happen.”

The police department has, in its investigation, also made a connection between the two incidents.  Commissioner Allen Whylie at the Prime Minister’s press conference on Sunday:

Allen Whylie

Allen Whylie, Commissioner of Police

“Police were called to an address on Tibruce Street where they found two females who had been shot and killed.  A third female was also discovered at the hospital, a minor with a gunshot injury to the hand.  The investigation that has been launched, we are seeking, we have one person in custody who we are certain can assist us with our investigation and we are seeking two others.  But the investigation at this time seems to lead that that murder last night was retaliation for a previous murder where a lady was killed on Aloe Vera Street and a child was also injured.  During the course of that incident, police who were in that area responded and sometime afterwards, the police were also fired upon.  They returned fire, however, the perpetrator or perpetrators were able to escape via the river in a boat.”

The issue involving Flowers’ grandson is deep-seated and the family, despite the grief he has caused, cannot just deny their relationship.

Andrea Tucker

“We just annoyed that our nephew put we eena dis situation.  He put us in a really difficult situation.  We haffi deh wid ahn because da my ma last baby son that.  We haffi deh with ahn, we haffi still, we cyant acknowledge ih da noh nothing to we.  Da something to we… He is something to us, he is our nephew.  But all we ask he fa at the end ah the day, please mek we, mek he got weh he haffi seh or tell di police whateva he haffi seh or something, mek we get our justice fi our mother.”

Ironically, Flowers’ youngest daughter, Tanika Lemoth, was also shot and killed two years ago while leaving a concert.  The mother and her foster daughter Delcia Blanco, who also lost her biological mother a year ago, were both killed on the night of a concert performed by the same artist. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.