Stabbed to death with broken bottle on La Isla Bonita

lionel pinelo

The weekend’s other murder took place in San Pedro where a cabinet maker was stabbed to death outside a bar. Lionel Pinelo had moved to the island years ago in search of a better future. But just before midnight on Friday, he was viciously stabbed outside a bar and he died hours later, early Saturday morning. Pinelo was with four other persons on a golf cart heading to Compadres Bar when one of three men standing outside Rainbow Bar, threw a bottle at them. Pinelo’s group confronted the three men who were then joined by four others.  One among the rival group used a broken bottle to stab Pinelo to the left rib cage area.  Pinelo was rushed to the Ambergris Hopes Clinic and was later transferred to the K.H.M.H.  News Five’s Marion Ali was on the island and files this report.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Twenty-four year old Lionel Pinelo, a cabinet maker by trade, moved to San Pedro Town three years ago to seek a better life after a troublesome past in his hometown, San Ignacio.  But it appears that threats he had been avoiding eventually caught up with him on the island early Saturday morning when a group of his peers viciously attacked and stabbed him to death in front of a nightclub in the Boca del Rio area.

abigail lopez

Abigail Lopez, Friend of Lionel Pinelo

“He mi di go and some young man mi di stone ahn with lone stones and then somebody wah person come, some police come and seh why you di stone di young man fah? And ih tell di young man mek deh go. And ih gone I hear that when the young bwai look fi gone out from the bar, they gone after ahn and they stab ah down.”

The stabbing was quite likely the result of contention between the youths on the island and Pinelo over a dispute he mentioned to his mother in brief three weeks ago when he visited with her in Cayo.

Sonia Harris, Mother, Lionel Pinelo

sonia harris

“Ih seh ma wah lotta people hate me out deh you know. I tell ahn madda I mi think dah mi only yah. You gone far and still why? Ih seh ma me noh know why, I change myself and still people noh like me.  Ih no time no want tell me nothing because ih feel ih wah stress me out too much, but I have wah niece weh only she ih talk to.”

Marion Ali

Marion Ali

“The recent murder was an incident that outraged area residents say was the high point of a series of altercations here at Compadres Bar here in San Pedro Town. And those residents are clamoring for the permanent closure of this business. But that finality, according to Chairman of the San Pedro Town Board, Severo Guerrero, is one that those residents will have to actively pursue.”

Severo Guerrero, Chairman, San Pedro Liquor License Board

“With this problem of area residents not wanting it, the procedure is that area residents must sign a letter or voice their concern in black and white before we can take it to the table.”

Marion Ali

“But can’t that be done considering the nature of the crime that occurred? A man was killed right there outside.”

severo guerrero

Severo Guerrero

“Definitely, this black and white is just to enhance our efforts just so that we have something to show everybody that yes the community is asking for it to be closed.”

Guerrero says that the San Pedro Liquor Licensing Board had granted a license to the business after it met the requirements. He added, however, that since then, there have been countless complaints against the bar which the Board has now taken into account, the most significant of which was Saturday morning’s murder. While the police piece together this latest murder, Pinelo’s mother is left with the grief of losing a second child in five years.  Marion Ali for News Five.

Police have detained several youths pending investigations.