Baby, Dad, and Friend Murdered in San Pedro; Four More Wounded
Before Sunday night, the murder count for 2023 on La Isla Bonita stood at two. But the bloodbath that occurred in the San Pedrito area sometime before midnight on Sunday has more than doubled that number. The unthinkable happened: a family of three and two of their friends were ambushed as they turned onto the back street near the lagoon, heading towards the family’s home. Gunmen came out of the dark mangrove area and opened fire. When it was over, three people were dead, including a three-year-old toddler. Four others were wounded and are now hospitalized. The incident has left the families traumatized and at a loss for words, the police are seeking answers, and the tourism destination revisiting its safety net, for residents and visitors. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.
Voice of: Aunt of Amari Rodriguez
“My niece, my last ah my niece. I gone and I sit down, I put my two nephews right pahn my lap and I put my niece and I tell ah, “Who da auntie baby?” “Me, Auntie.” “Who da auntie princess?” “Me, Auntie. She just da mi wa sweet little angel. She da mi the only girl da this yard ya.”
Marion Ali, Reporting
Three-year-old Amari Rodriguez will never get an opportunity to attend classes, or drive a car, or learn how to snorkel. She paid with her life on Sunday night, reportedly over an ongoing dispute between two friends whose relationship had soured over the past few weeks. The baby was one of three persons, including her father, who were shot dead about a hundred yards from where she and her family lived in the San Pedrito area.
The child’s father, Delmar Rodriguez, a fisherman by trade, had borrowed his sister’s golf cart earlier in the night to go and cash a check. They went to the Sandy Toes Lounge on the beachfront where they had food and a few drinks before heading home. But they never made it. Just as they turned the corner on the back street near the lagoon, a hail of bullets was fired at them. The residents, who were reluctant to talk on camera, said that it sounded like the murderers came by boat and ambushed the unsuspecting family and friends.
Delmar’s sister said she heard the shots that killed her brother and niece.
Voice of: Sister of Delmar Rodriguez
“Ih mi sound like fireworks drop pahn the ground. Dehn just start shot up them. And I wake up my husband and I tell ah, “Babe, you hear that?” When we open the door, my sister and the other bally weh get injured dehn deh down deh and dehn say “Dehn just kill your bredda and my baby (my niece).”
Fatally injured were: three-year-old Amira Rodriguez, her father, twenty-five-year-old Delmar Rodriguez, and his friend, Carlos Chi, who stayed with his cousin on the other side of town in the San Mateo area. Margarita Rejon is Chi’s aunt. She told News Five that Carlos had just arrived from Libertad Village a week ago looking for work.
Margarita Rejon, Aunt of Carlos Chi
Margarita Rejon
“He tell me, “Auntie, weh part we deh it’s hard right now because I just earn $30 a day and I got my two babies. Sometimes we nuh got fi eat da Libertad Village.” He lived there. And I tell him, “Pop, if I mi got money I mi wa lend yoh because I know he won’t pay me back because da with check them pay them.”
Rejon is also the mother of Leonel Cornejo, who was wounded in his abdomen and right calf, and is hospitalized. Rejon says Leonel left their house in San Mateo to also go change his check and he met up with his cousin, Carlos and Delmar. The cousins – Carlos and Leonel – apparently decided to accompany Delmar and his girlfriend, twenty-one-year-old Karla Cordova and Baby Amari to their house in San Pedrito. When the gunshots rang out, Carlos sought cover inside a yard, but he slipped and was shot dead where he fell.
The Police investigation has revealed from the get-go that the motive of the shooting was drug-related, and street talk in San Pedro is also suggesting the same. And while this kind of criminal activity is difficult to put a lid on, San Pedro Mayor, Wally Nunez told News Five that they have to suppress these incidents because it hurts the fragile tourism industry and causes uneasiness among the residents.
Wally Nunez
Wally Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro
“We cannot afford, we cannot afford for these things to continue happening because it affects our tourism; it affects our livelihoods; it affects our residents that are not feeling safe when they go out in these different areas. As you can see, we have started all these pavements in different areas, and this will give a little boost to these areas, an economic boost, because traffic will be flowing more in these areas. And we cannot, we cannot have these illegal activities happening. We need to put a stop on this, and it has to be now. At the entrance of the Boca del Rio Bridge, the Boca del Rio – the channel itself, we want to put a police booth there: police, coast guard, and port authority, so that we can do checks for whoever comes in and out. And then we have back here by San Pedrito, which was the area last night and we have San Mateo as well.”
Aside from Leonel Cornejo who was wounded, three pedestrians were also wounded. They are San Pedrito residents: thirty-one-year-old Jose Hernandez, twenty-three-year-old Ivan Guerra and nineteen-year-old Randy Guerra, who all suffered varying degrees of injuries and are hospitalized.
Marion Ali reporting for News Five.
