Belizeans and U.S. employer slapped with criminal charges
The fate of three Belizean security guards of the Commercial Free Zone’s Las Vegas Casino and their American employer deteriorated today when they were slapped with criminal charges in neighbouring Chetumal for a shooting incident that occurred on the Belize side of the border. The Mexican authorities have added the serious charges of Attempted Murder, Grievous Harm and Attempting to Smuggle Arms into Mexico. The three Belizeans are Martin Miller, Curlin Thompson and David Gomez, and U.S. National George Hardie Junior, the owner of the casino.
The incident has been receiving plenty attention in the Mexican press. One press report quotes one of the two Mexicans who were shot Sunday night, thirty-five year old Edwin Jesús Navarro Meneses, as saying that the guards opened fire on him and his nephew, eighteen year old Luis Felipe Rosado Navarro, in the casino’s parking lot. Navarro told Mexican police that the bone of contention was one bottle of beer. According to Navarro, the guards ordered them to leave. They did, and headed for another casino where they met a friend who returned with them to the Las Vegas Casino.
According to a report in today’s Diario de Quintana Roo, Navarro claims that the Belizeans opened fire on them while he was parking his Chevrolet Cavalier in the casino’s parking lot. Navarro was shot four times: once in the head, the arm, chest, and leg. In his interview, Navarro said Hardie and the guards set chase on them in a Lincoln Navigator across the Belize/Mexico Bridge and onto the Subteniente López in Chetumal. Navarro has been released from the hospital. The three Belizean and Hardie will again appear in a court tomorrow. Meanwhile, Mexico’s Ambassador to Belize, Luis Manuel López Moreno, met on Monday with Chetumal’s Police chief, Marco Antonio Domínguez Reyes, to further discuss the incident.
In another press report Edwin Navarro is accused of shooting at the casino and that the Belizeans returned the fire.
News Five was unable to reach the Belizeans and Hardie who have been in police custody since Sunday night in Chetumal.
