Snypa gunned down and former soldier clings to life
Romel Palacio Sr.
The weekend’s other murder was in the city where the family of Delbert Hinds prepares lay him to rest while a former B.D.F. soldier is clinging to life. Shortly after seven-thirty on Friday night, thirty-two year old Hinds, aka Snypa, was gunned down in one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. He did not stand a chance at surviving the hail of bullets; and on Sunday morning, two armed men burst into the home of Romel Palacio Sr. and fired multiple shots at the elderly man. It is believed that the intended target was his junior who was about to testify in an upcoming murder trial. Romel is on life support at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports on both shootings.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Fifty-three year old retired B.D.F. staff sergeant Romel Palacio is tonight on life support at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital following a daring shooting incident on Sunday during which a pair of hired killers entered his home at the corners of Flamingo Street and Jane Usher Boulevard.
Tyoris Palacio
Tyoris Palacio, Wife of Shooting Victim
“I was sitting right here where you are doing some sewing. My grandson was sitting on the loveseat and I didn’t hear them. When I saw a black man was standing over there and a Hispanic one was standing beside me. The Hispanic man said “nobody move”, you know, and then I looked up because then I wanted to know what’s the matter. When I looked at him he had a gun in his hand. I can’t say what kind of gun and the other young man that was over there he had a gun in his hand as well.”
His wife Tyoris told News Five that the home invasion was an attempt by the assailants to locate her eldest son who bears his father’s namesake. Romel Jr. is an eyewitness in the murder of Mitchum Heredia which occurred almost five and a half years ago in the Port Loyola area. That case is set to be heard sometime this week.
Tyoris Palacio
“I don’t think my husband was the intended target. I think my son Romel Palacio Jr. is the intended target because he had witnessed a murder about six years ago and from that time we are having problems with these people, you know. They are at jail right now but they still have access to be sending man to try and kill my child.”
The men held responsible, according to an interview conducted with ASP Chester Williams at the time of Heredia’s shooting, are brothers Emory and Morris Felix, both affiliates of what was once the Gill Street Gang.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Former Head of C.I.B. (File: April 11th, 2006)
“If you can recall Morris Felix and his brother recently got off a murder and again they are charged again with another murder, so it is a trend with them. So we will see how best we can tie this one down to see that they do not get off on this one.”
While Romel Jr. wasn’t at home at the time of the incident his ailing father was hit multiple times as he attempted to enter the nearby bathroom.
Tyoris Palacio
Mitchum Heredia
“All I could do was call for my husband because at the time it was only the three of us at home. My sons had gone out, you know, and when I called for my husband my grandson started hollering for him as well. “Dad, dad” you know, and we heard him come out [of] the bedroom going to the bathroom and apparently as he got by the bathroom door I heard the shots, you know. The colored one shot him first and then the Hispanic one shot him again and they both walked out, you know, and got on their bicycles and rode this way.”
Quick police work led to the apprehension of the two men shortly thereafter but it’s no consolation for the Palacio family.
Tyoris Palacio
“We just came from the hospital and then the doctor said that he isn’t going to make it, you know. They are waiting until the brain is clinically dead before they take him off the life support because from the time he got there yesterday he was on life support. He isn’t getting better.”
Delbert Hinds
In another area within the Port Loyola community two days earlier, gunshots rang out near the corners of Kut Avenue and Kraal Road as thirty-two year old Delbert Hinds, or Snypa as he was otherwise known, was uncompromisingly rubbed out in a shower of bullets. He was hit in the left side of the back, left side of his upper abdomen and right upper arm before being left for dead.
Voice of: Delbert Hinds’ Sister-In-Law
“Ih mih di drink and ih look like dehn drunk ahn then dehn shot ahn, you know. I feel that, I believe that da chance dehn chance ahn outta ih life, you know. [Dehn] siddown wid ahn pretend being ih friend and then kill ahn. That really cold, you know, fi somebody siddown wid you, laugh wid you, talk, wid you and even walk wid you dah di spot weh you gwein and get you deh, send you out go buy and that da weh dehn end up do wid you. Da like dehn di plot it, you know, cause according to weh I get fi understand da he mih di go buy then ih come back siddown and drink wid dehn and everybody siddown, drink, laugh and talk and da that da it.”
While Palacio Sr. may not have been the intended target in Sunday’s shooting the same cannot be said for Hinds who is no stranger to the law. His publicized brushes began in September 2005 when he, along with four others, was charged for a series of robberies in the area behind the Lord Ridge Cemetery. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
The Romel shooting is a perfect example of the failure of the justice — or should I say, the INJUSTICE — system in Belize.
Known killers are released from the “revolving door” of our courts, and kill again. And again.
There is only one remedy: HANG ALL KILLERS. A life for a life — the first time!
Hang all murderers this law must be passed I have been calling for this action for two years now to no avail 62 murders later still no action on this front this must be brought back to curb all this crime I call again for this useless pm and gov. To bring back the hanging penalty this is worth protesting cola and Shacron we need to hang all murderers and if the gov. Doesn’t do it we the citizens of this great country should start doing it ourselves so let it be written so let it be done.
I am saddened to hear about Romel. From 1984 to 1990 I served in the BDF (13 platoon, E Coy) with Romel where he was known by all and sundry as Desert Fox. He lived up to his name. I do not know of a better soldier in the BDF during that time. Even the people who did not like Fox admitted that he was a very serious and ambitious soldier who carried out his orders to the letter. He was a good man. He will be missed. Now, find those bastards and shoot them down like the dawgs that they are.
If the punishment would fit the crime, those evil bastards would not live to kill another soul.
I say they should hang them high. Get rid of the garbage citizens then the nation would be clean.
This crime situation in Belize is really out of control.Just don’t touch my family because i am coming and it ‘s not going to be a nolle prosequi.
Send the killers to THE SUSTAINABLE REHABILITATION CENTER (SRC)….Prison Farm…….4 – LIFE
There THEY CAN EARN THEIR KEEP and CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY at NO COST TO TAX-PAYERS.
BUILD THE S.R.C. in Toledo……. the Kolbe Resort is TOO CLOSE TO BELIZE CITY.
Belize is no longer the land of the free.We as working Belizean citizens don’t have the right to live anymore because we are the targets of the criminals.I could understand if you would rob me for some money and leave,but what reason do you have to kill me? I am a young man thinking hard of having any children because of the the world they would be entering.A lot of lives are being ruined due to the crime situation.The good and bad will suffer someday because of the way the country is.It is only a matter of time before the almighty gives us a sign.We will pay for all the sins of the sinners,but i believe that Belize needs a wake up call.Even though we might suffer,but i would rather suffer by the hands of the almighty than to live in Belize, where there is no justice nor punishment for crimes committed.We won’t get anywhere because Belizeans don’t look out for each other.It takes all to unite and speak up on certain topics.If we want for them to bring back hanging,it can’t only be a few people,it has to be the majority.We are not organized like that because everyone is afraid to speak up.We need to take back Belize.Whenever the people of Belize can unite for one common goal,we will start to see the changes ,but until that moment comes,if it comes ,we just got to deal with it.
Pick another district Earl…….
these are the right people to make an example out of, hang them high in the public square so that people who are contemplating this action will suffer the same fate . they were pretty much caught in the act committing this heinous and despicable act. in essence what they were doing was derailing the entire judicial system, and they should pay w/ their lives. here in the states these punks would be put down, so that the masses would get the message. it is ironic that i feel much safer in a population of eight million people in nyc than when i visit belizecity w/ a population of 100000 plus people.
As long as our court system keep giving the criminal elements the impression that they’re going to walk out of court free as a result of intimidating witnesses,this trend of paying for witnesses to be killed will continue.
NY, I agree with your comment I live in US and do feel safer here than when I visit Belize, imagine that. The opposition needs to join forces with the government to pass the necessary laws required to HANG THESE BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If they care about the country and its citizens like they said then they need to put their best foot forward for our people and politics aside, It breaks my heart every time I read the news as we are fast becoming Haiti. I love my country and want to go back home permanently, my children has fond memories of Belize even after 16years not being there, I am afraid that something might happen as it is not what it used to be,