Fisherman murdered on high seas, one charged
Thirty-three year old Kirk Smith, a fisherman by profession and father of three girls, became Belize’s seventy-seventh murder victim on the high seas. Smith’s body was brought in by skiff from Turneffe Island last Friday night. There is much speculation on the motive behind the killing, but this morning police arrested and charged a Sarteneja fisherman for the crime of Murder. Marion Ali has been following the incident since Friday and has details in the following report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Twenty-nine year old Marcos Moh appeared before Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb this morning to face a charge of Murder. Police say Moh, who had been working at a fishing camp near to Smith’s camp on the Turneffe Caye range, did not act alone but he was the man who pulled the trigger.
Superintendent Julio Valdez, O.C., C.I.B.
“These persons were on the island, these other persons drive pass pan wah boat and they start to fire at them. That’s what we got right now.”
Marion Ali
“At close range?”
Supt. Julio Valdez
“We believe so, yes.”
Marion Ali
“And then at the time, they were in their boat retrieving lobster traps.”
Supt. Julio Valdez
“Yes, so when they were in a boat another boat passed, fired at them. The other two persons jumped in the sea and one person got shot, that’s Mr. Smith.”
Smith’s body was brought in late last Friday evening in the boat in which he was killed while he and two other colleagues were retrieving lobster traps. Still slumped over, Smith’s body had a bullet wound which penetrated his abdomen and lower back. The two workmen reportedly escaped gunshots when they jumped into the water. Smith’s common-law wife, Maxine Zelaya, told News Five today that she felt they targeted her husband because of envy.
Maxine Zelaya, Common-law Wife, Deceased
“He’s someone who’s always generating to make money. They way he works, a lot of people envy him for the way he works.”
Marion Ali
“Somebody would want to put a hit on somebody for that?”
Maxine Zelaya
“Because then he work and then if you are sea and you have a camp out there and I have a camp, the water is not for none of us; competition. It’s not really who has the most things, but if you can set out more for everyone, if you can set out more or enough traps, you mek more money. And then Kirk is someone that he will set as far as he can and if they believe that he is just making too much money or he is in the area, they set in the area, he is set in that area they would want him dead because they believe he is making too much money and that is not so. Because he set in an area in the lagoon and he would go as far as he can that he can have enough traps that if he goes out there he could bring home something.”
Zelaya says she knew something was wrong the moment Smith’s two workmen, Trevor Johnson and Jason Westby, showed up at her house on Friday. That’s because the group had just gone out to sea two days earlier and were not due back for another few days.
Maxine Zelaya
“When I saw his workmen come in and I ask them where he was Friday evening, they said they shot him and he dead out at sea. They said that this guy just came up when he was in the boat and just shot him. It was two of them and this one Marcos Moh he just came and just fired a shot without asking no questions or anything, just straight at Kirk.”
But while police are not yet certain what the exact motive of the killing was, they are sure it was triggered by a previous conflict.
Supt. Julio Valdez
“We recovered an AK forty-seven along with some rounds we believed was the weapon used in the shooting of Mr. Smith at the Turneffe Island. So yes, we did recover the weapon; an AK-forty-seven.”
Marion Ali
“Does police believe that the two had any previous conflicts prior to the murder?”
Supt. Julio Valdez
“So far, from what we got, we do believe they had a misunderstanding before. The motive for the shooting at this time of day, we cannot say but we do believe that yes, there was some misunderstanding happened between both of them from before. I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding they had, but something happened between the two of them—not the two of them, but fishermen out there they have some kind of rivalry or something out there and we believe that yes, this person had some kind of misunderstanding, thus resulting in the shooting.”
Marion Ali
“Could it have been over lobster traps? I’m made to understand that it was just an envious relationship between the two which had grown to…”
Supt. Julio Valdez
“At this point in time, it can be possible. Anything can be possible.”
But while Zelaya says she finds strength in God, she has a message for Smith’s killer.
Maxine Zelaya
“I hope they can go out there and dive the seas for what they were fighting for. I hope they can go out there and dive and enjoy themselves diving and making the money that they took away from him and the life they took away from his kids and the money to take care of his kids. The dream of his kids, he was a role model not only to his kids, but to everyone out here. And I hope they are happy with it because you know weh happen? When the hands of death knock at their door, I hope they will be strong and can be strong and take it. Because you know what happen? That was my foundation. I hope they can live with the tears that my three daughters will shed for the rest of their lives because tears is something really powerful.”
Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.
When Marcos Moh appeared in Court, he could not be offered bail because of the nature of the offence and was remanded in custody until October twenty-second. It is believed that Smith was standing at the bow of his boat when the fatal shot hit him. Jason Westby and Trevor Johnson, who were with Smith, were not injured. According to police, Westby jumped into the water when the assailant’s gun jammed and Johnson, sped away and managed to escape.
