5 charged in attack on shopkeeper

5 young men detained yesterday for the assault and robbery of a Belize City shopkeeper have been arrested and charged. Those suspects are twenty-two year old Frank Elijio, twenty-nine year old Kenrick Reneau, twenty-three year old Gregory Casildo, Alex Goff also twenty-three, and twenty-seven year old Bruce Willacy. They have all been charged with attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm, dangerous harm and aggravated assault. Reneau, Elijio, Goff and Casildo, along with William and Frank Vasquez, were also charged with handling stolen goods. That group, minus Elijio, was further charged for possession of a prohibited firearm, as were two unnamed minors. The arrests arose from an incident Wednesday evening on Raccoon Street in which forty-eight year old Ming Xong-stun was beaten over the head and robbed of cash and his licensed handgun by a number of armed men. Police later recovered the stolen gun as well as a loaded pump action sawed-off shotgun at a house on Neal’s Pen Road. Ming remains in a coma at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.