Murders in north and south lead weekend crime
Police in Punta Gorda are trying to decide whether a shooting death in Jalacte Village near the Guatemalan border is the result of a previous misunderstanding or a spur of the moment murder in the course of a hold-up. The shooting, which occurred around 9:00 Saturday night, claimed the life of the Alcalde of Jalacte, thirty-three year-old Antigonus Garcia. Garcia’s attackers are reportedly two men, believed to be Guatemalans, who went to his house to change some quetzales into Belize currency. Once inside the house, one of the assailants pulled out a gun and shot Garcia in the head, shoulders and arms. Injured in the attack was twenty year-old Marvin Cuz, who was in the house at the time. After firing eleven shots, the culprits left, taking with them only the money they had changed. Police on both sides of the border have teamed up to try and solve the murder.
Meanwhile, a resident of Guinea Grass Village is dead tonight after he was chopped with a machete several times on Saturday. According to Orange Walk police, sometime around midday, thirty-one year old Juvencio Perez and eighteen year old Keith August, both residents of the village, became involved in an argument. During the fuss, August reportedly took a machete and chopped Perez a number of times on the head and back. Perez was rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital but died shortly after he arrived. It did not take long for authorities to arrest August and today he was charged with Perez’s murder.
Police are looking for three men tonight after the ex-girlfriend of one of them was reportedly raped over the weekend. The twenty-four year old from Orange Walk Town said she was walking on the Belize Corozal Road at around three on Saturday afternoon when her ex-boyfriend and two others drove up beside her and offered her a ride. She accepted the lift, but said that the men took her to a house on Stadium Street in Orange Walk where her ex-boyfriend and one of the other men raped her.
Police are questioning thirty-five year old Pedro Cano of Santa Familia Village, Cayo, in connection with a traffic accident that has left a six-year-old boy critically injured. Cano contends that around midday on Sunday he was trying to overtake a pickup on the Bullet Tree Road when he was forced off the road. His vehicle knocked down six-year-old Alexander Julian Williams, who was walking on the side of the road. Williams was taken to the Belmopan Hospital and later transferred to the K.H.M.H.
