Restaurant Patron Shot and Killed, Wife Injured in Brazen Evening Shooting

The Indian community is reeling from a double shooting which ended in the murder of one of their members around eight-fifteen on Thursday night in Belize City. Fifty-year-old Anil Asnaney and his wife, forty-four-year-old Manisha, had just left a restaurant on the Northside when they became the targets of gunfire. By the time Police arrived, Anil was dead and his wife was in the throes of shock. News Five’s Marion Ali has the story in the following report.

Marion Ali, Reporting

The bloodstains on the street in front of Sumathi’s Indian Restaurant today marked the spot where a family man was gunned down in front of his wife on Thursday night. In the attack, she too would be wounded, but only superficially, and would survive. Police information to us is that the couple had gone to pick up food from the restaurant and they were about to get back in their Nissan Frontier pickup truck when two male persons approached them on beach cruiser bicycles and fired five gunshots.

This morning police investigators were retrieving surveillance recordings from the area that might be useful in their investigations. From what News Five gathered from people who were in the vicinity at the time, four shots were heard, followed by two youths seen riding bicycles straight down Baymen Avenue in the direction towards Kelly Street.

Owner of Sumathi’s, Subr Mani Velu, told us off camera that he was in his kitchen when his attention was drawn to the incident outside his business. He said that this was the first time in the ten years that he has been operating from that location that something like this has happened.

The couple’s Sensation X-Treme Store on Albert Street was shuttered today, with a black bow reflective of the family’s loss. When News Five spoke with Attorney, Payal Ghanwani, she was with the bereaved wife and released the following statement on the family’s behalf. “The family is still in shock and mourning the loss of their beloved husband and father. So at this time we have no comment except that they are doing everything they can to cooperate with the relevant authorities to get justice for the loss of their loved one.”

Marion Ali reporting for News Five.