6-Year-Old Dies Knocked Down and Killed in Belize City
Armando Godoy
A six-year-old student of Unity Presbyterian School in the Antelope Street Extension area of Belize City lost his life on Saturday morning when he was knocked down and killed just a stone’s throw away from his house. Initial reports were that Armando Godoy was heading to a shop across the street from where he lived to purchase items for his mother, the family says that that is not so and that he was following his older cousins who had gone to the shop and that the fatal accident could have been worse. According to police, Dion Logan was the driver behind the wheel of the NexGen Company vehicle that struck and killed Godoy. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Six-year-old Armando Godoy had a twin sister. It was their first weekend since school closed for the Easter holidays. Just before midday on Saturday, he was ran over, and killed, by a vehicle and the driver did not stop. Erica Bermudez, who was like an aunt to Armando, spoke on behalf of the family who is understandably distraught. While she did not see what happened, Bermudez says that Armando’s cousins were sent to the shop across the street to buy and unknowingly to any of the adults in the house, Armando followed them.
Erica Bermudez
Erica Bermudez, Relative of Deceased [Translated]
“My son and my nephew went to buy. The baby was left with the phone in the house to the back. When he noticed that the cousins didn’t come, he came under the house so we could not see him and went looking for them. He crossed the road and then his cousins told him not to run and he returned and stood by the car while the others were buying. While the boys were buying, the boy thought they were playing and he hid by the vehicle. Like any innocent child, he thought they were playing. I don’t know how far away they were from the vehicle, but if the car came out a little further, it would have hit the other boys as well. We have to clarify, the boy was not buying anything for his mother; his mother did not send him to the shop.”
Police responded to the scene shortly after to discover the body of Godoy on the dirt road. The driver of the vehicle Dion Logan claims that he didn’t see the child nor was he aware that he had struck anyone, but was informed and drove himself to the police. But the evidence shows that the vehicle ran over the child.
Fitzroy Yearwood
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, Belize Police Department
“The officers on the scene were informed by officers from the Raccoon Street Police Station that a vehicle was parked at the station where the driver claimed that he was called and informed that apparently he hit a child on Antelope Street Extension. He didn’t know what was the extent of the injuries that the child sustained and at that time, he did not know that the child had succumbed to his injuries. The driver was cooperating with police and he claimed that he didn’t know that the vehicle hit that child. He identified himself to police as Dion Logan, forty-four years driver for NexGen Company and he was driving a vehicle that belonged to that company.”
Dion Logan
Statements have been recorded and Logan was taken into custody and issued a notice of intended prosecution.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood
“He was detained, NIP was served, samples obtained and he was informed that he was being detained for manslaughter by negligence. I know that at this time, he is back at the station waiting for his charges relating to this incident. But I must say he came to the station after he was called on his phone and has been cooperating with the police from since.”
News Five can confirm that even though a school is in the immediate vicinity, there are no speed bumps or pedestrian crossings in the area, which residents say has been a concern for years. Duane Moody for News Five.
