Execution style shooting leaves city resident dead
Two murders occurred over the weekend, one in Belize City by gunshot and the other in the rural Stann Creek District by machete. To say they are examples of senseless violence is to state the obvious. Not so obvious is how to stop the bloodshed.
Jacqueline Godwin
Twenty-seven year old Simon Alexander Montes, better known as ‘Pan’, was executed around nine on Saturday morning. Police believe several people in the neighbourhood may have witnessed the homicide but no one is talking.
Deon Tillett, Brother of Murder Victim
“Anybody weh cu help, we just wahn ask they, just try give we wah lee, yoh know, wa lee assist or something because like yow, right now my old lady she, I noh know if she wah could mek it through this one yah. … And everybody hurt to, because we the try ask question, weh happen, an like nobody noh wahn tell we weh gone on. So, I noh know weh wah happen.”
Deon Tillett says even if his brother had a misunderstanding with someone, he would not tell the family. Montes, was only a short distance away from home when he was gunned down on Pitter Street.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
“Do you know where he was heading that morning on his bicycle because it looks like he had just left home.”
Deon Tillett
“Well, the talking weh we get the Saturday morning when I come, they tell me my breda mi deh out deh pan the lane, mi di lay down pan the refridge weh ih usually deh pan. Then they seh he just get up and ride gone but when ih the come back, da then they seh they—when everybody come out—they seh they just see ah lay out pan the ground and wah body stand up ova ah and shot ah two more time, that dah all weh we know.”
“The morning one ah my lee boy come and tell me, ‘boy, they just shot yu breda’, I tell the man, ‘offa what?’ The man say well the talking weh he get the young boy they come and tell ah they want a two dollars weed and they give ah the five dollars and when he tun roun’, then they just shot ah in ih head back and ih drop. And the young boy stand up ova ah and shot ah two more time. That dah the talking weh we the get but then I no see how if he mi di ride and young boy they come buy weed from he how that coulda happen da way deh.”
Montes was hit in the head and right shoulder and died on the spot.
Belize City police are asking any one with information to call the nearest police station or Crime Stoppers at 0-800-922-8477.
