A Blood Feud with No Apparent End
There are no arrests to report on tonight, in respect of the daylight execution of Daniel Hughes on Boxing Day. Police are asking the public to come forward with any information that can help them in cracking the case. While a firearm was recovered from the scene of the shooting on Tibruce Street, test are yet to be conducted to determine whether it was the weapon used to kill the fisherman. News Five’s Isani Cayetano takes a look at a feud between two Lake-I families that has left a trail of dead bodies in its wake.
Bernadine Lauriano
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
The existing hostility between two Belize City families came to a head in March of this year with the murder of fifty-two-year-old Bernadine Lauriano. Since then their hatred for each other has resulted in three more deaths, the most recent of which happened on December twenty-sixth with the murder of Daniel Hughes Sr. Investigators put forward that the surprise attack was simply an extension of that “old beef”. From the scene of the shooting, police recovered a handgun. They cannot say for sure that it had been in Hughes’ possession at the time of the ambush.
Daniel Hughes Sr.
ASP Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Belize City
“We cannot say if the firearm was for him. I know the firearm was found not far from his body, however, we have the firearm and we have the expended shells so we will do a testing to see if the expended shells are from two different firearms. Then we can say more or less if this firearm is the one that was used to kill him or it came otherwise.”
Whatever the outcome of that test proves, Hughes had no chance to defend himself against his assailants. He was waylaid and taken out in broad day, moments after leaving his brother’s residence on Aloe Vera Street.
Paulette Gibson
Paulette Gibson, Sister-in-law of Deceased
“When he left from here, he left from here good, good one, so we don’t know because then he left, he and his girlfriend. He, like what I told you, he just come from sea yesterday. My daughter and my next lee son and fi he daughter and son and his girlfriend gone with him to sea and they come and his girlfriend gone, eat a plate of food from ih niece, after that ih ask ih girlfriend if ih ready and she tell ahn yes and dehn gone.”
But they wouldn’t get far. According to police, a pair of men sprang on the driver and opened fire.
Alejandro Cowo
ASP Alejandro Cowo
“Police visited the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital whereupon arrival they observed the motionless body of a male person who was identified as Daniel Marvin Hughes, a Belizean of Aloe Vera Street, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds to the left side of the face and one to the upper right arm.”
In the wake of the deadly shooting, police have since detained Hughes’ brother and nephew in an effort to prevent a possible retaliation. Their detention isn’t going over well with the family who believes that their loved ones are being targeted unjustly.
Paulette Gibson
“They hold them and dehn da noh problem people. My son seventeen years old and dehn have my son lockdown fi what, nothing. And my son noh know ‘bout violence or dehn thing deh, my son know ‘bout go da sea. My son wahn mek money, that da weh my son have eena fi he mind. My son da noh somebody weh wahn heng out pan street side or di heng out with lotta company, yo check, and dehn got my son lockdown. Fi what? That da lone nonsense and my son only seventeen. My son noh have no crime, nothing and dehn have my son and my gentleman lockdown.”
While no arrests have been made, police are appealing to witnesses to come forward with information that can lead to the capture of Hughes’ killers.
ASP Alejandro Cowo
“We were there; we were trying to speak to the people who are there because we know that there are people who saw what happened. We are asking them to come and give us information. We know that we can stop this if they cooperate along with us. Every death that is coming, this rivalry is increasing amongst those two families, so we as a society, I think that especially in that neighborhood if we want to put an end to it we must come together and let us assist the police in trying to solve this situation. We have an idea more or less who might be the two shooters, but we need to have the evidence for them to be charged.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
