Two brothers killed execution style in Ladyville

It’s the kind of homicide that we more often see on the violence-prone streets of Belize City. But the latest double murder unfolded on a quiet lane in Ladyville. News Five’s Marion Ali reports from the scene.

Marion Ali, Reporting
The bloodstains inside this pickup truck tell the violent story and tonight police have two more murders to solve. Brothers and business partners, thirty-two year old Daniel and twenty-six year old Said Sewell were gunned down execution style sometime after six-thirty this morning just outside their parents’ home on Parakeet Street in Ladyville. The killings came as a shock to neighbours and family friends who looked on as police processed the scene and removed the bodies.

The men had just arrived from their Lord’s Bank home as they did every other morning to pick up home-made tortillas their mother, Yvonne Sewell, made to supply their grocery shop at the street corner.

Yvonne Sewell, Mother of Murdered Men
“I hear when the pickup come and I then wait and I noh see none ah them come and then after that I hear like when a vehicle would backfire because like I really noh study bout gun and dem things deh, right? And then I hear when the thing gone “pow!” like that. So I tell their daddy, I seh it sounds like dem bwai vehicle di backfire and then he say they wah come in, like dat. And I never did bother again and from deh I hear, after that bout five times I hear the thing gone “pow, pow, pow,” like that.”

When Sewell heard the pops, little did she know that they were the gunshots that would claim her two sons’ lives.

Yvonne Sewell
“I come out and I walk fi gone outside and the next son over di other side tell me, he seh, “Mom they just shot your two sons.” So I seh, “Cho!” I seh, “No” and then I walk towards the pickup and he open the pickup door and when I look I see the two of them in there fi true and tell ah, “Da true, they shot mi two lee bwai.” So I tell ah I no know who do it and why deh do it.” But I never di think that they dead you know, like it happen sudden.”

Sewell said it was as if it was their fate to die together.

Yvonne Sewell
“Why they come this morning together, because the next truck work with butane and it neva have in no butane, so the older one to him bring out the youngest one in the vehicle and that’s why they mi deh together.”

Marion Ali
“You know any reason why anybody would want to see your two sons dead?”

Yvonne Sewell
“Well as far as I know, they got their lee business, they da friends with everybody. I noh know why they shot them, I really noh know cause they da boys weh if you need help and you go and ask them and they have it, they give you. So I noh know why whosoever do it, why deh do it.”

Marion Ali
“You said you had this fear that one day they’d be gunned down?”

Yvonne Sewell
“Because of the business. Every time they would hold up one of them Chaini I always tell them unu must tek care of unu self you know because people shoot you fi nothing now.”

For Charles Sewell, although losing two sons at once is a difficult thing to grapple with, he says he does not want revenge.

Charles Sewell, Father of Murdered Men
“I feel bad about it, you know. I’m a Christian man and I sympathise with the guy who has done it or whatever happened. I noh have any prejudice against them, I don’t ask for no revenge or nothing like this. I just need to let them know that I feel bad about my sons and I will grieve for them, but I will trust God in everything.”

Officer Commanding the Ladyville Police Station, Inspector Calbert Flowers, says thus far they have no strong leads.

Calbert Flowers, O.C., Ladyville Police Station
“They were both found inside their pickup. Daniel was found behind the driver’s wheel; he received four gunshot wounds. Said was in the passenger seat and he received one gunshot wound.”

Marion Ali
“I picked up that their gun, they have a licensed weapon, was not found either?”

Calbert Flowers, O.C., Ladyville Police Station
“Yes, we know that they carry a license firearm. However, the whereabouts of that firearm is not known at this time. We do not know if they had it on them or if it is somewhere else at this time. … We have not yet ascertained what type of firearm these guys have, but the shell that we find is nine millimetre shell.”

Elena Arnold says the murders made no sense.

Elena Arnold, Aunt of Murdered Men
“My nephew they noh fast with nobody, nobody. I know it for a fact, so I noh di swear for them because I see them into their church. They noh even drink, they noh even smoke, so why they wah hurt them.”

According to Inspector Flowers, police have interviewed an eyewitness who reportedly saw a man running away from the scene soon after the shootings.
Reporting for News Five, I am Marion Ali.

Daniel and Said Sewell are not related to brothers Mark and Duane Seawell. Duane is awaiting sentencing on drug smuggling charges in the States while Mark resides in Hattieville Prison while the U.S. request for extradition winds its way through Belize’s courts. This morning’s murders were numbers seventy-seven and seventy-eight for the year.