Last Wednesday, twenty-two-year-old Michael Lopez was slain in front of his home on Jones Street, a few hours after a pair of unrelated murders in the Old Capital. Immediately following the incident, two men riding on a motorcycle not far from where the shooting took place were detained by police for questioning. Not only did […]
Also in the crime blotter…On Monday, we reported on the shooting of Clifford Anderson in an alley off Neal Pen Road Extension in Belize City. The twenty-six year old was attacked on Friday night reportedly from behind and shot to the lower back, damaging his internal organs. He was in a critical condition following the […]
At around four o’clock this evening, a joint operation conducted by officers attached to the Special Branch and Quick Response Team in the Escalante area of San Pedro Town yielded an array of drugs. Police searched the residence of twenty-seven-year-old Juslyn Keoma Daniels, a Belizean waiter, and found five hundred and twenty-six grams of suspected […]
A victim of an alleged burglary has had the tables turned on her and ended up in lockdown. On Tuesday night, Ana Villacorte, an employee of B.T.L., arrived at her home in Maxboro, Belize District, to discover that her house had been burglarized. Villacorte, the common-law wife of attorney Arthur Saldivar, who is presently away […]
Villacorte says she believes that what has transpired is related to an ongoing custody battle with her common-law husband over the couple’s two children. They too are in the United States with Saldivar. Ana Villacorte, Common-Law Wife of Arthur Saldivar “No one has ever entered that house. Arthur has always visited the US and […]
Last Thursday we reported on the attempted murder of Eugene “Fat Back” Webster at his Los Lagos home off the Phillip Goldson Highway. Webster had been stabbed multiple times to the neck, back and arm, allegedly at the hands of his stepson, Michael Baptist. Well today, twenty year old Baptist was arraigned in the Belize […]
The Belize Police Department continues to ramp up its community policing efforts, primarily by going out and meeting people – finding out their concerns and just generally showing them a more human, approachable aspect of the Police. The murder statistics may not necessarily reflect the effectiveness of the initiative, but top cops countrywide swear by […]
There is always a clear differentiation between the north side of the city and the south side – sort of an assertion that bad things happen in the latter, while the former is a peaceful zone in the old capital. Yearwood says that it’s not necessarily that there’s no trouble in the north side – […]
Community policing initiatives were also ongoing in the south side of Belize City. Today, a team of officers from Eastern Division South visited the CET Site, a neighborhood within the Saint Martin’s area which remains somewhat of a hotspot for gang-related crimes. The vicinity of La Croix Boulevard has been the scene of several shooting […]
According to Senior Superintendent Dawson, the need for a checkpoint on La Croix Boulevard arises out of its distance from the nearest police substation, as well as the crime situation which is presently on the rise in the area. Isani Cayetano “How effective has that been in terms of arresting the crime situation and […]
The coastguard’s noticeable absence from the immediate vicinity of the Sarstoon River essentially leaves Guatemalan fisher folks free to operate in Belizean waters illegally. Despite an initial presence in the area, the Ministry of National Security acknowledges that for the coastguard to be effective in arresting illegal fishing within Belizean waters, a team has to […]
Eighteen year old Roaring Creek resident Ashton Puerto was detained Sunday night for the murder of another youth, Maleek Norris, also eighteen. The two teenagers were allegedly beefing over a bicycle and ten dollars, and Sunday afternoon in Roaring Creek that beef resulted in Puerto shooting Norris with a homemade pipe shotgun. Norris died and […]
On May first good friends Akeem Thimbriel and Shawn Lopez were gunned down in Camalote in brutal, brazen fashion. The murders shocked and angered the community which immediately pointed fingers at persons they believed to be responsible. Those persons from Camalote, a couple, were immediately picked up by Police, along with one other person and […]
As we told you in Monday’s newscast, eighteen year old Kent Brooks Junior succumbed at the K.H.M.H. on Sunday morning, some eleven days after being shot to the lower back June twenty-ninth. The now double murder of Brooks Junior and Kieran Morrison is just one of the many homicides for which the police have not […]
One initiative that is being revisited by the department to address urban crime is the usage of cameras to capture criminals in the act. Back in 2008, six cameras were installed across south side Belize City as a crime prevention tool; five of them are still in operation, but the cameras are obsolete. ACP Williams […]
The destructive nature of gillnet fishing remains a perennial issue for the Fisheries Department. It is also a serious concern for conservationists, as well as environmentalists, since the practice results in the random capture of unwanted species. While those organizations have been active in discouraging the use of large commercial fishing nets, the Belize National […]
Another bloody weekend in Belize City has resulted in the murders of two men and a third person in critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. We begin with the shooting death of a popular watchman who was employed at the Bottom Dollar Store and at the House of Culture. Kariem Hafiya was returning […]
The second murder in what has now become a series of bloody weekends happened on West Collet Canal near the Public’s Supermarket. The victim, killed in brazen fashion with a hail of bullets to the head, is no stranger to the Police. Roger Banner was a well-known criminal operator in the west before he went […]
The community of Roaring Creek is grieving in the wake of an apparently senseless murder on Sunday. One teenager, Maleek Norris, is dead while another, Ashton Puerto, awaits arraignment at the Belmopan Police Station on the charge of murder. Street sources say it was an altercation over ten dollars and a bicycle which led to […]
The weapon used to kill Maleek Norris was crude but obviously deadly – just two pieces of metal pipe and a shotgun shell. It was found dumped on the Young Bank Road on a farm, a discovery which Gillett attributes to the good work of the officers conducting the investigation. Those men will be rewarded […]
No one has been detained for the murder of Kieran Morrison which took place on June twenty-ninth on La Croix Boulevard, in front of his home. Morrison was shot multiple times and died on the spot. His friend, who was with him at the time, eighteen-year-old Kent Brooks Junior was also injured; he was shot […]
Meanwhile, another Belize City youth is tonight clinging to life at the K.H.M.H. after he was shot by a lone gunman on Friday night. Police say that around ten p.m., twenty-six-year-old Clifford Anderson, a resident of a Neal Pen Road, was shot to the back as he walked through an alley near the basketball court […]
Statistically, violent crimes in Belize City are down, despite an increase in murders across the country. While the Old Capital remains the center of gang activity, homicides in the districts have also seen an uptick when compared to the same period in 2015. According to Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, the police department is […]
There were three murders on Wednesday in the Old Capital and police from Eastern Divisions North and South have since charged two Belize City men for the mid-week murders of Tevin Palmer and Devin Parham. This afternoon, Lionel Kelly and Valentine Baptist, who are reportedly from rival gangs in the city, were arraigned for separate […]
A volley of gunshots broke the silence in an otherwise peaceful neighborhood within the Saint Martin’s area on Wednesday. The fatal shooting would round out a bloody evening as three Belize City men were murdered a few hours apart. Around seven-forty-five p.m., news quickly began spreading of yet another deadly spray of bullets. The victim, […]
