Shots Fired Near Allan Pitts Crescent
Fortunately, no one was injured this morning when shots were fired in Belize City, but the shooting caused commotion in the neighbourhood. At around ten o’clock, shots were fired behind a house on Allan Pitts Crescent. A number of residents scrambled for safety fearing for their lives. Police arrived on the scene, but one of the residents is upset after armed police barged into her home while children were inside. News Five’s Hipolito Novelo has the story.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
A few minutes after ten o’clock this morning, residents of Allan Pitts Crescent in Belize City heard gunshots. Police officers, who were in the area, quickly responded and began searching for the shooter. As seconds went by, more armed police officers descended in the neighborhood though no one was injured. News Five was first on the scene.
Voice of: Resident
“I heard like nearly five or six shots. My brother-in-law just walked across his mother’s yard you know. I just gave him a phone which is not working. He said that he will try to make it charge there at his mother because he is waiting for his mother. He opened the door and when we went there he said that he was fooling with the dog. He was giving the dog water when he heard the shots behind the house. He ran inside and locked the door and he went to hide by the bathroom. I don’t know if they shot after my brother-in-law or they shot at the house. My brother-in- law said he was near to the back of the house and he ran in. I don’t know if it was at him they were shooting or at the house thinking that my boy is there with a lot of people. I don’t know what they were doing. But the shots came from the back of the house.”
Speaking to us off-camera, a furious resident of the street told us that officers barged into her house after they saw her boyfriend running away from the scene. That boyfriend was detained for questioning.
Voice of: Resident
“We heard a lot of shots. So everybody ran. My boy ran inside. He ran inside and my friend ran downstairs. The girl who lives upstairs, her husband and daughters were downstairs. She was bawling for her husband and daughter. So everybody ran. I ran to my back door, the police ran straight into with the gun, pointing it to my baby, right in my baby’s face. So we bawled out and I told the police that it was over my mother in law’s house that we are hearing the shot come from because my mother in law lives two houses from me. This is the second time that they are putting the gun in my baby’s face. And then they want to come and tell me about being quiet and calm down. I can’t calm down. MY baby is only three months. I cannot calm down. They say that they saw somebody run. We are telling them, yes! Everybody was in the yard. Everybody ran. We didn’t tell them, no, you know. We told them that everybody ran because all of us ran. They didn’t find anything. Do you know why they didn’t find anything where the thing happened? The police not even stayed. They came bum rush my yard. I don’t know why they bum rush there and they didn’t find anything.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Would they have a reason to arrest “Blue?”
Voice of: Resident
“Because the policeman said he saw him run. So he arrested him because he saw him run. So why didn’t he arrest we? Why he didn’t arrest all of us because all of us running.”
Hipolito Novelo, News Five.
