Denzel Flowers Shot Dead on Central American Boulevard

Denzel Flowers

The first murder for the weekend occurred in Belize City on Saturday night.  He was recently released from prison, but twenty-one-year-old Denzel Flowers was shot multiple times as he walked on Louise Bevans Street heading toward Cemetery Road. A gunman approached him just as he was about to get to his house. As many as seven bullets found their mark on Flowers who had served time for the attempted murder of his stepmother.  Those close to Flowers say he suffered from a mental condition. Here is Hipolito Novelo with that story.

Hipolito Novelo, Reporting

It was about seven-thirty on Saturday night when twenty-one-year-old Denzel Flowers was shot to death in Belize City. Flowers was in front of T & R Grocery Store when a young man, said to be in this early twenties and wearing a black hat and t-shirt, approached him, pulled out a nine-millimeter pistol and fired a barrage of bullets. Police had searched Flowers minutes before he was murdered.

ASP Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Belize City

“Police has documentation showing that about five minutes before the incident he was searched somewhere near Louis Bevans that is when he was heading towards Central American Boulevard where he was met by his attacker. So you can say that police was circling that area but unfortunately we had just seen police leaving that area and then afterward the shooting had happened.”

Flowers was shot at least seven times including four times on his chest. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. At the scene, investigators found six expended nine-millimeter shells. Flowers lived a few yards away from where he was gunned down. His sister, Lissette Casasola, spoke with the media.

Lissette Casasola

Lissette Casasola, Sister of Deceased

“He was there. He went to buy and the next thing we know is that he was shot. We don’t know anything else, just that he was shot. By the time we reached the hospital he was already dead. All we know is that they have a suspect but we don’t know anything else.  That is all we know that they have a suspect.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Would he usually go to that store and buy at that hour of the night?”

Lissette Casasola

“Yes. That is his regular routine. He will always come. He would stay there for a couple of hours and then he would ride to the back where he lives?”

Reporter

“So do you think that they were watching his movements?”

Lissette Casasola

“I don’t know. Maybe he was the right spot at the wrong time.”

Flowers had recently been released from the Belize Central prison where he was on remand on a charge of attempted murder. In 2016, Flowers- then nineteen-year-old, attempted to chop his fifty fifty-two-year-old step-mother, Consuelo Lopez to death. She survived and he was remanded, later to be released.

Alejandro Cowo

ASP Alejandro Cowo

“We don’t believe that it was gang rivalry. This person that was shot, we know that he had some dispute some years, or about a year ago, with a family member and that he had recently been released from prison. From there we know that he had been receiving threats but it is nothing that has to do with anything with any gang.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Does the family know if he had any beef with anyone or anyone who would want him dead?”

Lissette Casasola

“Probably like two years ago, my brother had a run-in with the law. I am not saying that is the reason for his death. We don’t have any evidence. We don’t have anything to say that is what it happened.”

According to Casasola, Flowers was diagnosed with Paranoid schizophrenia-a disease which blurs the line between what is real and what isn’t. Flowers’ brother in law, Hammed Guzman, was shot and killed two weeks ago. The family does not believe that both incidents are connected. We are told that since the time of the murder, at least three persons have been questioned. According to the family, police have identified one suspect. Hipolito Novelo, News Five.