Double homicide in St. Martin’s
Blood on the streets of Belize City is hardly rare nowadays but the death of two young men in the afternoon calm of a Sunday is still shocking. The silence in St. Martin de Porres was shattered as an argument escalated into a full-blown altercation and climaxed in gunfire. Eyewitnesses say two men, twenty-one year old Horace Conorquie and twenty-six year old Nelson Terry picked a fight with twenty-one year old Jason Phillips. Phillips managed to run away from his attackers and when he returned to the area, he was armed. News Five’s Jacqueline Woods visited the scene this morning and spoke to traumatised family and friends.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The three young men were at this establishment drinking with a group of friends when one Jason Phillips entered the yard. Shortly after, it is alleged that someone accused Phillips of spreading malicious rumours about a friend of the group, Deon Requena. An argument then ensued between Phillips, Horace “Guana” Conorquie and Nelson “Buju” Terry.
Nelson “Buju” Terry, Shooting Victim
“Some rumour that the young boy did something to him already. Then he just come back and spread rumour saying he is a bitch and he is a punk and this and that. And he was telling the boys that around there and he just come and start to talk crazy to the next boy and right there things started. He push me first and I said boy look here I don’t want to hear anything and he push me and ran and then we caught him and we start to rumble. We start to fight.”
Josephina Cho, Witness
“When I come out back I see “Buju” was arguing with this same boy. When I look I see he pushed the boy with a gallon in the chest, then he said he is talking fool and not to come around here. So Deon came between them and said you all stop that, stop that, rest the boy.”
Josephina Cho, who lives in the yard where the fight took place, says someone slapped Phillips and then he was pushed out on the street. However, a young man only known to her as “Strap” went after Phillips brought him back and asked him to talk to the person who had hit him.
Josephina Cho
“The boy said I don’t want to talk because you will all crowd me. When the boy said that, he slapped up the boy then the boy run away from them. They then grabbed away the boy coke and they threw it. The boy then look to get away again and he ran that side.”
Phillips did not get very far. He was caught by Conorquie and again beaten.
Josephina Cho
“He run and catch the boy over there and Nelson, “Buju” and “Strap” they gone and beat up the boy. They kicked him up and thing and punched him right against Mr. Budd’s fence there so.”
Phillips managed to escape from his attackers and ran from the area. However, instead of staying away from the neighbourhood, he allegedly went home, armed himself with a sawed off shotgun and returned to Zacaranda Street. Lucelle Requena says she was standing on the veranda when she saw Phillips coming on his bicycle.
Lucelle Requena, Deon’s Sister
“He was coming with his shirt off and a big gun was wrapped in his shirt. And he was holding one hand his left on the handle and in his right hand the gun. He was coming, smiling, and swinging the gun. When he reached in front of this fence here, he stopped and he looked at all of them. “Buju” was standing by the step and my brother was by the corner of the house and the next boy at the side of him. So when he reached, he got off his bicycle and stand up, but a young lady and a baby was standing in front of “Buju.” So he point the gun and he told her to move out of the way, as she moved he fired a shot.”
Requena says she saw when her brother, Deon Requena, ran to the back of Cho house and she quickly ran after him. On her way, she passed Terry who had been shot.
Lucelle Requena
“So I run from downstairs and I run back there and I saw “Buju.” He was on the floor bleeding and he asked me to help him, but I ran past him to go and see my brother. The next boy ran through the bushes gone. We never know that he was hit and when I reached inside the house I saw my brother on the floor, but he was turned over, cuddled up and I didn’t know he was hit. So I knocked him on his leg and I said, “Deon, Deon are you okay,” but he never answered me. So when I spin him over I saw a big bullet at his throat. So I put my hand to try and hold the bullet and he grabbed my hand and he was squeezing my hand.”
Twenty-one year old Deon Requena died a few minutes after reaching the Karl Heusner Memorial hospital. Twenty-one year old Horace Conorquie, who received bullet wounds to the chest and stomach, died at the scene, and twenty-six year old Nelson Terry was shot in his hand and remains at the K.H.M.H.
Nelson “Buju” Terry
“I had a little baby in my hand and it’s a good thing I put him down because at the same time he came and jumped off his bike and bust a shot with a sawed off and it just caught us.
“I never expect him. I never expect he would come back because I said that done and he had gone home. But then when I look, he came back suddenly with a bike and just bust it.”
Requena says her brother was not involved in the fight and had tried to stay away from the men when things got out of hand.
Lucelle Requena
“I say Deon go and part the fight, but he said he is not in it, so he is not going. But I said they are your friends and when you talk to them they listen to you, so go and part the fight. But he said “Lucelle, I am not in that, so I am not going to get in that.”
So when the boy come with the gun I hollered to my brother to come home. He said, “I am not in it, so I am not worrying and everything will be okay because I am not in it.” But the boy, I just think wanted to catch my brother. But my brother didn’t do him anything, honestly.”
Sources tell News 5 Phillips is accused of being a snitch and was beaten to teach him a lesson. Police say they have detained Phillips who has since confessed to the shooting. He will be charged for the double murder and attempted murder. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
