Augustine Coc is Executed as he Headed Home in Belize City
Augustine Coc
Just as our evening newscast was wrapping up on Thursday night, shots rang out on Partridge Street in Belize City. The life of twenty-seven-year-old forklift driver Augustine Coc was ended by a gunman who came up to him and fired several shots in his direction. Coc was heading home to his family on Haulze Street when he was killed. News Five’s Duane Moody found out that Coc’s common-law-wife was on the phone with him and heard as he was being murdered. Here’s his report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
He was working for years as a forklift driver with RC Imports, but on Thursday night after clocking off from work and heading home, twenty-seven-year-old Augustine Coc was murdered. Coc was walking on Partridge Street when a gunman opened fire on him; even as he collapsed on the ground; his attacker stood over him and emptied the clip. Frighteningly, Coc’s common-law wife was on the phone with him when he came under attack.
Voice of: Brother-in-Law of Deceased
“She mi di talk on the phone with my brother-in-law the same time the incident happened. So it’s crazy like even just di think about it. You di talk on your phone to your gentleman and you di hear the shots ina di background and he turn around and you hear it on the phone; ih ask weh happen. And then after that, all she heard was more shots and after that she deh pan the phone di say, “babe, babe di ask fi ahn and no response.”
The family ran out to the scene to find Coc on the sidewalk dead. His mother arrived in the city this afternoon and the families are still trying to come to terms with the devastating loss.
Voice of: Brother-in-Law of Deceased
“You see this stuff on the news and mien Belize so cold. Ih cold; these people have no heart, no regards, no sympathy, nothing. He is a hard working young man; ih have ih hobbies – ih drink, ih smoke – but he dah from work to home, work to home. If you ketch him out there dah because he gone buy something and come right back home. I noh know ahn as no gang figure, I noh know ahn like ih deh round with nobody like that. When the guy already shot ahn the first time, ih gone over ahn and finish ahn off; mien dah like weh coulda mi drive he fi gone dah to that extent fi do mi bralee that?”
The murder occurred just before seven p.m. and police responded within minutes; by then the gunman had already fled the scene.
Alejandro Cowo
Supt. Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Eastern Division
“Mister Coc had just concluded his day’s work and was dropped off at the corner of Partridge and Cemetery Road when he was walking on Partridge Street and he was approached by someone who fired the fatal shots at him.”
Reporter
“Any suspects at this time? Any motive?”
Supt. Alejandro Cowo
“We have a number of persons detained. The motive so far, we have not established it, but I can tell you that Mister Coc has not had any encounter with the authorities and he does not appear in our records none at all.”
Augustine Coc
Coc was to celebrate his twenty-eighth birthday on December twenty-fourth; his mother’s birthday is on the twenty-first and he leaves behind four children, including two stepchildren.
Voice of: Brother-in-Law of Deceased
“It’s real devastating. It’s hard. Now to look at my nieces and my nephew because he has two kids and two step kids as well; and he took them as his own fi be wah young man. He deh with my sister for like ten years. He dah mi di provider, the br3eadwinner for the family.”
Duane Moody
“A senseless killing…”
Voice of: Brother-in-Law of Deceased
“…senseless killing. Innocent dude. The person weh do it, mien, I noh know why ih do it in that manner to an innocent young man like that.”
Supt. Alejandro Cowo
“It is just unfortunate for what happened to him and the family and yes indeed innocent people are caught because of this dispute that they have amongst them. And he was a victim last night that I believe that he was just a target because the persons who did the shooting could not find who they were looking for.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
