Caught on Camera: 4 Shot by Gunmen Posing as Chinese Store Customers

News of a shooting incident on Faber’s Road spread quickly across Belize City on Wednesday night, when it was discovered that three men had been injured while standing in front of a Chinese grocery store.  Footage of the brazen attempt on the lives of Sylvester Bahadur, Michael and Emerson Requena and Tricia Benguche mushroomed even faster once it was uploaded to social media.  By this morning, the sequence of events taken from a nearby surveillance camera, coupled with amateur video taken at the scene of the shooting had gone viral.  The images are graphic in nature, but they show quite clearly a pair of men approaching the store pretending to make a purchase.  Once an elder customer had left the premises, they wasted no time unloading a shower of bullets at the unsuspecting men, injuring all three before taking aim at the woman inside her vehicle.  Miraculously, none of the victims were gravely injured.  The latest act shooting on the city’s south side is believed to be gang-related and police are on high alert as they attempt to quell any escalation of gun violence in the wake of the attack.

ASP Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Eastern Division

“The second shooting in the city last night happened minutes after whilst police were trying to process this scene on Cemetery Road.  They were called out at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital just minutes before eight o’clock, where upon arrival they observed three male persons and a female suffering from various gunshot wounds to their bodies.  The persons that were injured are Tricia Benguche, Sylvester Bahadur, Michael Requena and Emerson Requena.  All of them sustained several gunshot wounds to their bodies.  All of them were admitted in a stable condition.  One Tricia Benguche has been treated and released this morning.  What police gathered so far is that last night, just before eight o’clock, all these persons, along with other persons, were in front of a Chinese store located on Central American Boulevard with Faber’s Road, namely, Win Kee Saloon shop when they were suddenly approached by two male persons who came on separate bicycles and thereafter opened fire upon the group of male persons, injuring the four abovementioned persons.”

Reporter

“Now sir, we know that surveillance footage of this particular shooting has been circulating on social media.  Has the police gotten a copy from the proprietor of that business and is it expected that this will aid in this investigation?”

Alejandro Cowo

ASP Alejandro Cowo

“We had the opportunity to view some footages in the area and we are working with the different establishment to see if we can retrieve those footages that definitely can assist us in this investigation.”

Reporter

“This particular part of Faber’s Road, it’s the part that deals mostly in the trafficking of marijuana.  It’s down more towards the extension part, a little bit past the substation.  Can you speak to a motive for this particular shooting at this point?”

ASP Alejandro Cowo

“We still don’t have a motive as to why this shooting happened.”

Reporter

“You can’t say who was the target or if the group of guys was the actual target.”

ASP Alejandro Cowo

“We are not in a position at this moment to say if there was anybody specifically who was the target.  As I mentioned, it was a group of persons and the person just fired directly at the group of persons, not only to one person.”