Cayo man injures three in chopping spree

Police say it was a longstanding family dispute that led to the senseless and brutal stabbing of three family members in the Cayo District. Investigations reveal that for some time forty-six year old Jose Herman Ochaeta, a woodworking instructor at C.E.T. San Ignacio, and the Lucero family, also of San Ignacio, have been feuding and all efforts to mediate the dispute have failed.

It is reported that around four on Monday evening the situation escalated when Ochaeta got into an altercation with eighty-four year old Ignacio Lucero, sixty-five year old Hilda Lucero, and thirty-six year old Evangelina Uk. By the time the dust had settled, the elderly man had been stabbed to the left side of his forehead, Hilda displayed wounds to the cheek and right ear, and Uk was injured in the left side of her chest, head, and left hand.

The wounded man and women have since been transferred to Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan. Police say what they have been able to gather is that Ochaeta, whose daughter is married to one of the victims’ sons, was upset because since the couple’s child died the family keeps changing the paint job he has done on his granddaughter’s tombstone.

Trivial? Yes, but Ochaeta’s machete spree is not being treated lightly by police. They have charged him with three counts each of Attempted Murder, Dangerous Harm, and Deadly Means of Harm.