A Grandmother and her Grandson are Dead, After Angry Father Plows Backhoe Through Their Home
Louise Young & Samir August
There are so many questions unanswered in the killing of a young child and his grandmother at the hands of the father of three. The unthinkable tragedy occurred at about two o’clock this morning on Faber’s Road. The father, Samuel August Senior, drove a backhoe belonging to the Belize City Council where he is employed, and rammed it into a house where his children were sleeping, along with their grandmother and two others. His five-year-old son, Samir, perished under the debris and his grandmother died soon after. Another child sleeping inside the house was injured and hospitalized. August, who had lost custody of his children after their mother died, fled the scene but was captured and is also at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital receiving treatment. There is abundant speculation as to what triggered the loss of lives and News Five’s Isani Cayetano went looking for answers today.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
A calculated act of extreme violence and terror visited upon an unsuspecting family, as five-year-old Samir August, his grandmother Louise Young and four others slept peacefully inside their home on Faber’s Road. Sometime around two o’clock this morning, their slumber would be interrupted by an inconceivable feat of cruelty. The little boy’s father, in a fit of rage, was plowing an excavator into their bedroom.
Carolyn Welch
Carolyn Welch, Sister of Deceased
“When I got over here it was in a horrible mess, so upon questioning my little cousin who had called me, she said that the boy’s father, Sam August, was the one who was responsible for what happened. She said he was in a backhoe and he drove the backhoe from the lane in front there and came and ram it straight into the house. She said, and when she heard the ram the first time, she ran out and realized that it’s my mother’s house that was hit. She came over to see what was happening and she said that he was ramming it again and shoveling up my sister off the bed and throwing her. By the this time the baby had already been covered under rubbles and things like that.”
Thirteen-year-old Britney Craig was also inside the home when it came under attack. Somehow, she was able to flee the wreckage and ran next door for help. Samuel August Sr. then turned his attention to her and set chase with the backhoe.
Britney Craig
Voice of: Tracey Slusher, Neighbor
“Britney escaped, she escaped, and he saw her and he reversed and he chased her with the tractor that he damaged the house with and came in here and knocked down my mom’s kitchen as well. That’s what I saw.”
Isani Cayetano
“What happened thereafter?”
Voice of: Tracey Slusher
“Well thereafter, I yelled for my sister, my brother and my other sister over there to make, where we could move out because we saw the tractor coming. I tell my ma we haffi get out because da we he di cohn kill. He di cohn kill we.”
Britney was seriously injured during the pursuit but has narrowly escaped with her life.
Carolyn Welch
“It’s only because of two coconut trees that were there that stopped him from actually killing that child because she ran into the yard screaming and shouting for help, you know, and he was ramming that vehicle right into the people’s kitchen.”
By that time, another neighbor had responded to the scene of the initial destruction. Speaking off-camera, she describes what she encountered upon reaching the Young’s residence.
Voice of: Neighbor
“When I gaan een, me and two other ah my neighbors, we mi scared because people seh like how di high voltage wire dehn bruk pop, yoh could get electrocuted soh noh go eena di wata. Soh I seh, “ Yoh know what, yoh still yet haftu go render aid because people get hurt ya.” Well we start to search round and two ah di neighbors dehn went in knee deep and dehn yer lee screaming from the other two kids underneath some slab a concrete. Yes, so I gaan round cause I mi scared, I done sih di wire dehn eena di wata but dehn neva touch together, so I gaan round from di neighbor yaad. When I gaan round, I yell fi dehn and I tell dehn I sih Ms. Louise Young eena di wata and soh I yell and I tell dehn I find Ms. Louise. So I di talk to her cause she partially conscious and partially unconscious. So I di talk to she and I di tell ahn, “Ms. Louise, hold on. Ms. Louise, hold on.” But di only ting weh replay eena my mind still yet, she di tell me, “Mi breath, mi breath, ih di leff me.” When I lift up my head now because I deh down deh and ih dark, so I di talk to ahn, lift up my head, da then I sih di baby. Noh couple like, yoh could ah seh, one lee stone’s throw away from fu she foot, I sih di baby pan di slab ah cement deh, dead.”
During the ensuing chaos, August also ran the piece of heavy equipment into another neighbor’s property, completely destroying the living room of Carl Butler’s bungalow. The Atlantic Bank employee told News Five that he was in the process of securing the company vehicle when August struck his residence.
Carl Butler, Neighbor
“I had a van parked in my yard and I got into the van to move it out of the way when he took, instead he decided to come towards the van and crushed the van into the fence and my house. So after that he took off, he took off down the street towards the Freedom Street area.”
Carl Butler
Isani Cayetano
“What are the extent of damages that your property has sustained as a result of this situation?”
Carl Butler
“There are some structural damages, the corner, especially the beam and the entire front, as you could see, is totaled.”
But what would drive thirty-five-year-old Samuel August to commit such a heinous crime? The ominous sign was posted to his social media page under an assumed name. At 7:24 p.m. on Tuesday night, Trey Wills, the alias August used, wrote, “I love them but I’m not going to maintain an old whore n [sic] her other grandkids. She stole my [bleep] kids from me and my mission is to die trying to get them back.”
Carolyn Welch
“He is angry because my sister got custody, legal custody of his three boys and he has to pay maintenance through the court for them and I think that is why he is causing all these problems. I understand he has a Facebook page somewhere about, somebody could pick it up, I don’t know, and a lot of threatening remarks were made on the Facebook page because he wanted his children. But he cannot afford to maintain his children, he cannot afford to mind them because he flips from side to side, he doesn’t have a stable home and that is why my sister has them and the boys were all happy here. So it’s really sad, you know, my sister is dead and my little five-year-old grand nephew is dead because of his stupidity.”
Samuel August Sr.
News Five understands that the children’s mother had passed away a few years ago and that August was in a custody battle with Louise Young, who was ultimately granted sole rights over her three grandchildren. Samuel August Senior remains at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after being captured by police. He is expected to be charged with murder upon his release. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
