A Weekend Shootout Involving Deputy Mayor Micah Goodin
Micah Goodin
Multiple shots were fired in the vicinity of Newtown Barracks in the early hours of Saturday morning, leaving a twenty-year-old Belize City resident with a graze to the neck. It happened after a night of partying on the entertainment strip and the incident involved Deputy Mayor Micah Goodin and his entourage. According to eyewitnesses, an exchange of words led to shots being fired from Goodin’s vehicle and shots being returned by a traffic warden. This morning both shooters were arraigned on charges related to the altercation. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Deputy Mayor Micah Goodin and three other men were involved in a shooting incident over the weekend in Belize City. The councilor got into a row with a traffic warden and his friends on Newtown Barracks after a night on the entertainment strip. Upon driving away from the scene, someone inside the sports utility vehicle driven by Goodin, drew a firearm and discharged the weapon.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“On Saturday morning after midnight, police responded to information of shots fired in the vicinity of Thirsty’s, that’s in Belize City. The police investigation revealed that there may have been some altercation or misunderstanding between two groups of persons who were socializing at this establishment and during the event, Micah Goodin may have intervened to quell the dispute between the parties and he got into his vehicle along with two other persons and drove off.”
Those individuals are identified as twenty-five-year-old Tarique James and twenty-year-old Tae Medina. While leaving the area, James reportedly fired several shots from his pistol. It is not clear, however, whether the weapon was discharged in the air or in Tillett’s direction. In response, he produced a licensed firearm and took aim at the vehicle. Four shots found their mark on the S.U.V.
Kenyon Tillett
Chester Williams
“One person who was inside the vehicle got a bullet graze to the neck. That person was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where he was treated and subsequently released. Police have since detained Micah Goodin, Tarique James and Kenyon Tillett. Tillett is a traffic warden, Tarique James is an employee of the Belize City Council and, as you have rightly said, Micah Goodin being the Belize City Council’s Deputy Mayor. They were detained for the investigation of that particular incident until the police could have ascertained exactly what transpired.”
Eventually, it was determined that Goodin was in the clear and was released from police custody. His passenger, on the other hand, remained in detention along with Tillett pending criminal charges relating to the incident.
Chester Williams
“At the end of the investigation, Tillett was charged for aggravated assault, wounding, and discharging a firearm in public. Tarique James was charged for discharging a firearm in public. The investigation did not reveal that Micah Goodin was involved in the shooting incident and so he was released after thirty-six hours in custody.”
Nonetheless, weapons belonging to all three men have been confiscated and ballistic analyses will be conducted to determine which firearms were actually fired.
Chester Williams
“I have also directed the O.C./C.I.B. to submit to my office a report on the incident and I am going to write all three license holders to show reasons why their firearms license should not be revoked.”
Isani Cayetano for News Five.
