Bowen employee recovering from gunshot to head
There is some good news to report on the latest murder and robbery involving Bowen and Bowen employees which happened shortly after five on Monday evening in front of the Belize Bank in San Ignacio Town. One worker died on the spot and the other, Millard Tun was shot to the head and right arm. He lost his right eye and bullets are still lodged in his arm and will have to live with the fragments on his brain. It is still uncertain what the effects of that will be and his response to treatment so far has been promising and he is now able to talk. As Tun lies in a ward in the Intensive Care Unit at Belize Health Partners Care Ltd., his sister, Joyce Tun says the family is hopeful for his full recovery.
Voice of Joyce Tun, Sister of Millard Tun
“He’s still in a stable condition. They are trying to do the best for whatever is left. But we have hopes; we have faith that he is going to be okay. He’s not going to be as normal as he was before. It has a great impact on his normal life, but we have hope that he’s going to be okay. He has lost the eye and he won’t be as normal as before; it will take time before he gets use to just moving around with one eye.”
Duane Moody
“What’s the impact that it is having on your lives, on his family etcetera?”
Voice of Joyce Tun
“We’re all upset, we are really upset. It has impacted us a lot. Like I said, he has four kids; he has two in college and two younger ones and it’s not the same anymore. And we are upset because we know that there are a lot of gang boys that are just out there not thinking about who they will hurt. They obviously go with that determination to kill because they don’t think it twice to fire back. I mean, one of them that got hurt, for a minute there we wished that he was dead. Imagine you planning on committing a crime; on committing a murder. They went determined and he was one of them. He went determined to do whatever it is to get that money that isn’t even his. We’re greatly saddened about the whole situation, especially that one of his co-workers died in the incident. It’s a job that they have to do. We know that it’s a risky job and everything, but we are hurt about everything because it almost cost my brother’s life.”
Doctors believe that if Tun continues to recover, he might not need surgery, at least for now. The other victim in the robbery, Tun’s co-worker, Josiah Thompson, was not as lucky and succumbed to gunshot wounds that same evening. Meanwhile, San Ignacio police have thrown the book at the three suspects they quickly apprehended after the incident. This afternoon, twenty-four year old Delan Parham was formally arraigned in the San Ignacio Court on charges of Murder, Attempted Murder, Robbery, Maim, Use of Deadly Means of Harm, two counts of Possession of Unlicensed Firearm and two counts of Possession of Unlicensed Ammunition. Magistrate Kathleen Lewis remanded Parham to the Hattieville Prison until February nineteenth. As for his accused partners in crime, twenty-five year old Arden Garoy, and forty-four year old Elvis Duncan, both remain hospitalized. Duncan, who was injured while allegedly trying to escape from the cops, is in the Belmopan Hospital and is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow on the same charges. Garoy, who was shot in a crossfire with the victims, is in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
In another murder, also in San Ignacio, police have charged three teens in connection with the homicide which occurred on Saturday night and claimed the life of Belizario Eck Junior. Eighteen year old Eric Hernandez, and Rony Badillo, and Roland Wilson, both nineteen, are jointly charged with Murder, Conspiracy to Commit Robbery and Attempted Robbery. They too have been remanded until February twenty-sixth. Eck Junior was gunned down inside his family’s business, Gladys Shop on Teodoso Ochoa Street just before closing time a few minutes before nine on Saturday night. He had come to his father’s aid to ward off two gunmen who had entered the shop demanding money. At the same time, two of Eck’s dogs came to their rescue and helped to fend off the thieves, but one of the robbers shot Eck as he fled the scene.
Also to be charged on Thursday in connection with a string of other offenses in San Ignacio and Santa Elena is Jarod Lamb Arthurs. Lamb was wanted for a number of burglaries, robberies and more recently, escape from Cayo police. He was shot in his left foot by police after he resisted arrest and pulled a toy gun on cops during his apprehension.
