Bartender fights off gunman, foils robbery
Many of us who have never been the victim of a holdup often wonder how we would react to the feeling of a gun barrel pressed against our temple. Well, one Belize City bartender no longer has to fantasize, as that scenario became reality early Sunday morning. What transpired was something out of a movie starring Steven Segall.
Thirty seven year old Moses Anthony Babb, the bartender for Bismark Sporting Club on Caesar Ridge Road, had just closed down the popular southside nightspot, and was about to make the night deposit, when he came face to face with a masked man armed with a nine millimeter pistol.
Moses Anthony Babb, Bartender, Bismark Sporting Club
“He come and tell me get back inside with a mask and everything. So all I could do was follow his instructions at that time. So I came back in the club. He tell me where the money at and he began searching my pocket and he get the money – the night sale that I was going to give the boss. He didn’t satisfy with that. He told me open up the draw.”
As he and the robber approached the cash register, Babb decided to risk it all and take matters into his own hands.
Moses Anthony Babb
“I’m about to open the draw, you know. He have the gun by my head here, you know, and so meanwhile I open the draw. I just say I will try something here and I knock up his hand and seemingly it worked. So I knock up his hand. I knock his hand with the right hand and hold it with my two hands, my right hand and my left hand, and in the struggle, me and him gone to the ground, you know, shot fired.”
Luckily the shot missed its mark, but was heard by Lloyd Arnold, the club’s owner, who quickly came to his employee’s rescue. Arnold, who lives upstairs of the establishment, said he had just finished watching television, when he heard the commotion downstairs.
Lloyd Arnold, Owner, Bismark Sporting Club
“And about ten seconds after the gunshot, I hear my bartender hollering, Bismark, Bismark, you know. So I went by my window, my rear window, and I saw that this guy was on top of Moses, so I decided to go and help Moses.
I went downstairs, and I decide to try and dismantle these guys, separate them as much as possible, you know. So I did that and the assailant get up and fled you know. In that time, you know, I saw that he had left his tennis, a white Nike, a mask that he was wearing and the gun.”
Evidence that the police were only too happy to collect as it led them straight to the culprit’s residence where Lanze Welch was promptly arrested. As it turned out, Welch, is no stranger to both Babb and Arnold. According to the bartender and owner, Welch frequents their game room and was familiar with the club’s daily schedule.
A total of six hundred and seventy two dollars was stolen from the club, but police were only able to recover six hundred and twenty. The remaining fifty-two dollars were presumably spent by the robber. Welch appeared in Magistrate’s Court this afternoon, where he was charged with robbery, unlicensed ammunition, unlicensed firearm, having a firearm with a criminal intent, aggravated assault and two counts of going equipped, whatever that means. Welch was denied bail and remanded to Hattieville Prison until September twenty ninth, when he is scheduled to reappear in Magistrate’s Court.
