Four shot during family’s moving day
And in Belize City, crime continued unabated. The Castillo family’s moving day last week Friday was expected to be a happy and uneventful occasion, but it was everything that it shouldn’t have been. The homeowner plus the three men who were assisting with the move were shot and badly injured. Edmond Castillo and his wife were moving from Barakat Street to Curl Thompson Street when the incident occurred. A lone gunman rode up from Man of War Street onto Curl Thompson Street and blasted fifteen shots at the vehicle occupied by forty year old Castillo, nineteen year old Enrique Alvarez, twenty year old Glenford Myvett and twenty year old Barney Cunningham Junior. All four men were shot in this senseless crime; the motive is unknown. Edmond Castillo, who spoke off camera, related the tale of his moving day.
Edmond Castillo, Shooting Victim
“I was living at Jane Usher boulevard and my house fell down, then I decided to rent a house at Barakat Street. When they completed this house now, I decided to move over this side. When I move over this side now then the perpetrator fired shots on us.”
Jose Sanchez
“Who was helping you to move in?”
Edmond Castillo
“The Cunningham family was helping me and Cunningham is my boss.”
Jose Sanchez
“Exactly what happened the night?”
Edmond Castillo
“The night I was just moving the things approximately nine o’clock. The last trip that we were bringing, when we done unload everything then I hear a bang. When I hear a bang I thought it was dynamite and I just jump out of the vehicle and I gone underneath the vehicle and I look for cover. I gone under the vehicle and I don’t look back; I don’t know who it is. And I just get frighten. Then afterwards I get out from under the vehicle and I ran. When I ran I ran home and I mi di bleed through my mouth.”
Jose Sanchez
“You are a hard working man. Can you think of any reason why someone would want to shoot you or anyone you work with?”
Edmond Castillo
“I don’t think why they would want to harm me because I am a hard working guy. I don’t do anybody nothing. I am a hard working guy and Cunningham is an innocent boy. Them boys are innocent, they work hard as me. He working at the Tropic Air, Cunningham the one that got shot in the head. I just feel for it, I just feel so sad; innocent person they kill. I don’t see why. I just—the good Lord will handle his own course.”
Jose Sanchez
“How will this affect your new home? Does this change your attitude towards being here?”
Edmund Castillo
“Kinda way but the good Lord will find a way for me.”
Castillo received a single gunshot under the cheek area; Alvarez received a gunshot wound to the right foot; and Myvett received a single gunshot wound to the left leg. All three men were treated and released from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Barney Cunningham Junior, the fourth man injured in the incident, was shot to the left side of the head and is in critical condition at the Belize Medical Associates.
