A disagreement on a remote island has led to the fatal shooting of one man, the wounding of his common-law wife and the detention of the shooter. Around 9:00 this morning Paul Westby and Dorla Martin, residents of a nearby island, landed at Frank’s Caye in the Sapodilla range at the southern end of the […]
A similar scenario unfolded on Wednesday in the Corozal District, resulting in the death of a villager of Libertad. Carlos Richards, allegedly drunk and disorderly, was shot to death by bar proprietor Wilfredo Leal. Leal told police that Richards threatened him and tried to attack him, whereupon he shot Richards with his licensed twenty-gauge shotgun. […]
They are the one ingredient in the Belizean melting pot known for hard work, devotion to God and a passion for non-violence. While that myth about Belize’s Mennonite community may have been true once upon a time, a major bust today in the Cayo District has demonstrated that crime is an equal opportunity employer. News […]
The mystery over the discovery of a woman’s body in a Belize City hotel room is much closer to being solved tonight. Jacqueline Woods has more. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting Forty-seven year old Joanna Josephine Arana may have died under suspicious circumstances, but her friends strongly suspect that is was a series of medical conditions that […]
Is it murder? Suicide? A drug overdose? Or simply a death by natural causes? That’s what police are trying to figure out following the discovery of a body in a Belize City hotel room. According to police, forty-seven year old Joanna Josephine Aranda, a resident of Dangriga’s back-a-town area, was discovered naked in one of […]
Tonight Belize City police are looking for two suspects in separate robberies: one of them a brazen gunman, the other a smooth talker. According to the cops, back in early May, Dorothy Gideon-Castillo of Belize City bought eighteen hundred dollars worth of goods from businesswoman Marie Fuller, on the premise that the bill would be […]
A search party continues to look for the body of a man believed to have drowned in the Rio Hondo over the weekend. According to police, Felipe Rodriguez, a Mexican from the village of Obregon in Quintana Roo and B.D.F. soldier Orlando Navarette of Douglas Village, were swimming across the river when Rodriguez went under […]
It was fun while it lasted–that is, almost a full week without a single murder, traffic fatality or even an accidental death. That short-lived period of relative peace ended over the weekend, with the latest brutal murder taking place this morning in Belize City at the height of the rush hour. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods […]
Police are having no better luck in finding a suspect in connection with the shooting death of a man in Belize City Friday night. Sometime after 7:00, twenty-two year old Jose Chavarria was riding his bike on West Canal between Prince and King streets, when he was gunned down. According to authorities, their investigation reveals […]
Another weekend shooting victim was luckier than Chavarria and Gongora. Twenty-four year old Kernel Gibson was shot in the neck, shoulder and leg, but lived to tell the tale. Gibson told police he was riding his bike down Vernon Street at 5:00 Sunday morning when a grey four door Oldsmobile Cutlass pulled up next to […]
We don’t usually report gun seizures, but police were unusually busy and successful over the weekend. On Friday evening they searched a Belize City hotel room and found three nine millimetre pistols, two Colts and one Smith and Wesson along with fifteen rounds of ammo. The residents of the room, described only as foreigners, have […]
In other weekend crime, the Ministry of Agriculture in Belmopan has become the latest victim of burglary. The thief or thieves broke into the West Block building and ransacked the offices of Minister Dan Silva and C.E.O. Sergio Garcia. A full inventory of missing items has not been completed, but initial reports list several digital […]
It’s an epidemic of another kind, and unfortunately it has proven far more deadly than dengue fever. Figures released today by the Police Department reveal that thefts of firearms have almost doubled over the last year. In the year 2000, forty-two licensed guns were reported stolen and in 2001 the number jumped to sixty-six. But […]
Another good reason to leave the guns at home is the likelihood that the whole vehicle may be stolen. Once virtually unknown in Belize, car thefts have become common. Police confirm that one hundred and ninety-six vehicles have been reported stolen in the last eighteen months. Even more interesting is that over one hundred and […]
In crime news we are both happy and amazed to report that for the first weekend in recent memory not a single violent fatality occurred in the entire nation of Belize. Yes, there were the usual assortment of shootings, stabbings, jackings, burglaries, drug busts and traffic accidents… but none resulted in death. That such a […]
A late afternoon shooting on Rocky Road in Belize City has sent two men to the hospital. Details are sketchy, but around 3:00 this afternoon two gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on one Alex O’Brien, twenty-six, of a Dean Street address and another man, described only as “Natty”. Reports are that O’Brien received gunshot […]
Meanwhile in Cayo, police report that a fight this morning between two men has left them both dead. When police arrived at the scene on the Bullet Tree Road on the outskirts of San Ignacio at around 2:30 a.m. they found Bebe Felipe Ical suffering from stab wounds to the head, neck and back. He […]
One week after she was reported missing, the nude body of twenty-five year old Genovea Campos was found in some bushes in the vicinity of here home. According to police, Campos, who suffered from mental illness, resided with her father nine miles north of San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye. On July fifteenth, […]
On last night’s newscast we reported on the wounding of three innocent victims caught in the middle of a Belize City shooting. Today, relatives of the accused say the police have it backwards. Jacqueline Woods reports. Patricia Usher, Sister “I was very surprised because I know they never had any gun. We noh even have […]
This month alone, there have been six reported homicides in Belize City…more grim statistics to add to what is already a long list of deaths that have taken place in only seven months. According to police sources, since January of this year forty-five people have been killed and most of the perpetrators are still at […]
Another day, more bloodshed…as on Saturday night, several Belize City residents would find themselves trapped in the middle of a shootout. According to police, around nine p.m. two young men, each armed with a sawed off shotgun met up with one of their enemies. A hail of gunfire ensued and when it was over, three […]
Another Belize City man is tonight recovering from gunshot wounds, this time to his backside. According to police, Kevin Young and another man were standing on East Canal when an armed man approached them and started shooting. Young was hit twice and has been admitted to the K.H.M.H. in a stable condition. Police retrieved eight […]
A businessman attacked during an armed robbery last week has succumbed to his injuries. According to police, Presentacion Chavez, the owner of a bar in the village of Spanish Lookout, was shot in the stomach by four armed and masked men on Thursday night. Chavez was admitted to ward at the Loma Luz hospital with […]
Everyday in Belize City, the echo of gunshots rings through the air; sometimes the bullets miss their targets, but most times they don’t. It is a situation we have been forced to accept as reality because the simple fact is that there are too many guns on our streets. Cognisant of the alarming situation, the […]
It is not a new story–in fact the subject is all too common–but that doesn’t make incidents of police brutality any less disturbing. Jacqueline Woods reports on allegations of one Belize City family. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting Twenty-two year old Philip Castillo, a mason with the Belize City Council, is at home recovering from injuries the […]
