Police are on high alert tonight as gun violence in the Lake Independence area of the Old Capital escalates in the wake of the murders of Almendarez siblings, Jason and Shaqwuan, and a cousin, Sydney Lamb. At the heart of the latest hostility is Kenneth “Big Tom” Flowers. The known street figure told the media […]
Big Tom’s name undoubtedly stands among the many nefarious figures in the criminal underworld. Aside from tales of his shady dealings, he’s also into music and manages a roster of up and coming Belizean artists, including Unlimited and Cross Di Nitro. Tonight, his protégés are both making headlines, not for releasing new music, but for […]
Late this evening, News Five spoke with Genevieve Cayetano, Unlimited’s mother. She told us that after being given the runaround, she was finally able to locate her son at the Raccoon Street Police Station where he was being held pending charges. Cayetano says that not only was Unlimited badly injured, he was also slapped with […]
As we told you, the viral stream has caught the attention of Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie, who says that the department will actively pursue Cross Di Nitro and levy criminal charges against him for making those threats. ComPol Whylie also denied allegations that a state-sanctioned hit has been placed on Kenneth ‘Big Tom’ Flowers. […]
A woman remains hospitalized tonight following a case of domestic violence inside her Belize City house. Thirty-one-year-old Nikita Smith was asleep at about five-thirty this morning when her common-law husband stabbed her multiple times and hit her with a cement block. He then turned on his stepdaughter, a twelve-year-old student and when her brother intervened, […]
Will Inspector Fitzroy Yearwood be dealt with disciplinarily for publicly lashing out against the Belize Police Department in the media on Monday? The former Media Relations Officer has been at loggerheads with the brass of the department ever since he was summarily transferred from that post to a desk job at the Queen Street Precinct. […]
The recent spike in murders in the Jane Usher Boulevard area has raised serious questions about citizen security for residents in that community. A string of homicides, including the shooting deaths of Justin Hyde and Keith Middleton, has prompted the police department to take additional measures to ramp up patrols and presence in that neighborhood. […]
Reports reaching News Five are that just before news time this evening, a female child and her grandmother were said to have been shot. The incident took place near the Puma New Road Service Station. Preliminary information is that the older woman was shot to one hand. The child is said to have sustained potentially […]
The Almendarez family has been hit by a string of tragedies; it is heartbreaking to lose a family member to the ongoing urban gun violence but to lose three, the grief is debilitating. Jason Almendarez was the first to be killed on October eleventh and this weekend, Shaqwuan Almendarez, his older brother was murdered in […]
Police say that eighty-two-year-old Ricardo Vasquez was murdered. On Friday we reported that Vasquez had succumbed after spending almost a week in the Intensive Care Unit of the K.H.M.H. He was found beaten up on the corner of Water Lane and West Street on October fourteenth. Up to then, it was not clear what happened […]
With this weekend’s murders, the count for 2017 according to News Five’s unofficial statistics now stands at one hundred and twenty, just twenty-five off the count for 2012, the most murderous year in Belize’s existence. As many as twenty-seven of those murders have taken place in Belize City, many on the southside. In the House […]
A twenty-one-year-old man says police brutalized him over the weekend. Shirlene Mai of Blackman Eddy says her son, Tray Ara, was picked up by four cops when he was walking home from a party on Saturday night. She says that Tray was with his brother heading from Unitedville to Blackman Eddy but because they have […]
Aside from the murders, there were two other shootings over the weekend in the city. Both occurred within two hours of each other on Friday night. Around eight o’clock shots rang out at the corner of Banak and Partridge Streets. Thirty-two-year-old Alrick Gotoy was hit once to the chin and rushed to the Karl Heusner […]
It was revealed at today’s House of Representatives that in 2008, the U.S. Embassy passed on the results of polygraph or lie detector tests to Belizean authorities for thirty-four senior officers in the Police Department, Coast Guard and Belize Defence Force. It is not clear who authorized or asked for the tests, but a majority […]
Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Elrington rose in reply to defend the senior command of the Police Department. Though his speech was in context of the greater crime problem, Elrington put his head on the block for the current team, stating that they have a handle on the greater crime problem and that they are […]
Cordel Hyde and Wilfred Elrington went toe-to-toe on the issue of crime and how to stop it in its tracks on the adjournment in the House of Representatives. According to Hyde, the removal of Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams to a desk job in Belmopan in July has seen a spike of murder and […]
On the crime blotter, activist Albert Cattouse was murdered last week in Belize City. Up to now there have been no arrests but his family is preparing to bid their final goodbyes on Saturday. On Wednesday they heard the Prime Minister provide details on what transpired when Cattouse was shot and killed inside his taxi. […]
Police brutality is a real existence that Belizeans are faced with seemingly on a daily basis. We have reported on numerous occasions the physical abuse of civilians at the hands and feet of law enforcement officers. Tonight, there is a short clip of a policeman beating up a homeless man that has since gone viral. […]
An eighty-two year old Belize City man is dead and the circumstances surrounding his death are not clear. There are several reports that eighty-two year old Ricardo ‘Rick’ Vasquez was robbed and beaten sometime on Saturday night. Reports are that he was in a game shop on the corner of Water Lane and West Street […]
The Bar Association has been critical of the backlog of judgment by the Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, so much so that the Prime Minister went on record several weeks ago to inform that outside assistance would be given to the C.J. to fulfill his workload. But now, a decision has been taken not to have […]
The decision to refrain from bringing in outside legal experts to lend a hand, says the A.G. would have raised eyebrows locally. Peyrefitte says that assurances have been given that all pending judgments will be delivered by December according to a timeline given by the Chief Justice. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General “It was laid […]
A sixty five-year old granny picked up another theft conviction but was lucky to be fined instead of serving jail time. On Friday, Martha Parchue, a grandmother to three young children appeared before the Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser and changed her not guilty plea to guilty for the theft of a seven-dollars and fifty cents boneless […]
The bizarre and shocking story of an alleged kidnapping of three school girls in broad daylight has left many with more questions than answers, and it appears that even the police have a hard time putting together the pieces of the story. As we reported on Monday, the incident happened “El Progresso” Community also called […]
In an update to the alleged foiled abduction of three girls from El Progresso Seven Mile Community in the Cayo District, we can confirm tonight that the American businessman held in detention has been released. He was held for forty-eight hours, but no charges have been brought against him. News Five has been told that […]
San Ignacio Police are yet to charge an American national who is currently in their custody for the alleged attempted abduction of three students from El Progresso Seven Miles Community in the west. News Five is being told that there is still not enough to charge the detainee, who has been in police hands since […]
