Inmate shoots at guard, guard shoots back

The growing problem of criminals with guns is one which Belizean society has faced for a good while…and it now seems that not even the closed world of the prison system is immune. This morning during a routine search of cells at Hattieville, an inmate apparently used a homemade gun to fire a shot at a prison warder. According to corrections department officials, inmate Eugene Martinez loosed the bullet as the warder entered his cell in the Tango One building. The shot missed, but the warder returned fire, catching Martinez in the right side of his stomach. Martinez, who since March has been serving a three-year sentence for drug trafficking, is being treated at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. The overall search of the cellblocks at Hattieville has resulted in the seizure of a large quantity of weapons, including a variety of homemade knives, but no other guns.