A robbery incident in Belize City this morning has left two employees of Atlantic Bank suffering from gunshot wounds.   Both men, twenty year old Germaine Tillett and thirty one year old Eugene Smith, are in stable condition at the KHMH.    Love Fm understands that around 9:20 this morning while the employees of the Bank were making mail deposits at the Maya Island Air parcel section, a shooter or shooters, who were waiting in a car, approached the company vehicle where the mail was and proceeded to shoot the two bank employees.   Some six expended shells were recovered from the scene of the incident.   Officer In charge of CIB, Superintendent of Police Aaron Guzman was at the scene this morning.  

Aaron Guzman, OC Criminal Investigation Branch

“As far as we understand it the culprits did get away with a bag but the bag does not contain any money, it was only documents.   Of course documents are valuable but for now it’s no money.   The injuries to the men are not life threatening.   We are asking for the public’s assistance in locating a white Honda accord, if anyone sees it they can call the police.   As far as we know that vehicle was seen driving off from the scene.”  

Arturo Cantun, Love FM

“Do you have any idea how many shooters there were?”  

Aaron Guzman, OC Criminal Investigation Branch

  “No sir not at the time we are still processing the area and when we finish talking to witnesses so they can tell us what they saw.”  

No one from the airline company was injured or harmed.   The shooting occurred in the Maya Island Air parking lot.   Jagdish Balani owns a snack shop adjacent to the parcel section of Maya Island Air and says he is very concerned about this morning incident.  

Jagdish Balani, Restaurant Owner

  “I own Balani’s Restaurant and Bar which is next to the Maya Island Air parcel section and I was sitting watching TV and then we heard a total of three gun shots and then we saw a guy running from the parcel section and he fell on the steps and all the taxi people ran into my place and I locked the place so that we are all safe.   Ten minutes after we went to the place and we saw that two of the guys were shot.   One was inside the vehicle with blood all over and the other was inside the vehicle with blood all over too.   I waited some fifteen minutes and then I open my business again.   I am really afraid right now because this happened right beside my place and they could have come to my place but they pass through the back so we could not see how many of them they were.”  

Speaking with an Atlantic Bank official at the KHMH, we were told that the two employees were dropping off parcel for the different branches.   This process is something that happens everyday.   The Atlantic Bank official confirmed that no money was in the parcel that was stolen.   Germaine Guzman received a gunshot to his right leg while Eugene Smith received a gunshot to his left leg.   None of their injuries has been classified as life threatening.   The Belize City municipal airstrip is open for regular service.

    This afternoon the Police Department met the media once again in their effort to keep Belizeans informed of the latest criminal activity and how the department is dealing with the situation.   The police informed that a total of three shootings over the weekend have claimed two lives and has left one man injured and recovering at the KHMH.   The first incident occurred after seven on Friday evening in the area of Rocky Road in Belize City.   Officer in charge of Eastern Division, Allen Whylie gave us the details.     

Allen Whylie, OC Eastern Division

“We had information of shooting in the Rocky Road area and police proceeded to that area as well as the KHMH where they met one Carl Bradley, thirty six years of age and of a West Canal address, who reported that while washing a car on west canal when he heard several shots fired.   He then realized that he has been shot to his left forearm.   As a result I am pleased to inform that based on investigations we know who the suspect is but we have not been able to locate him.   Therefore we have issued a wanted notice for the person of Brandon Taylor for this incident.   Also sometime around 8 pm on the 4^th (of April) there were some shots reported in the Saint Martin de Porres Area and then police visited the area where they saw the lifeless body of 21 year old Floyd McFadzen with a gunshot wound to the right back of the head and another to the middle and the left side of his back.   We continued out investigation in regards to that incident and we have one person in custody while we continue interviewing other people and it will only be matter of time before we can press charges.”  

Floyd McFadzen had just completed a sentence at the Belize Central Prison.   Another shooting incident occurred last night.   This one claimed the life of another man.  

Allen Whylie, OC Eastern Division

“The police visited KHMH where they saw one Ryan Glen Young of twenty years from Faber’s Road suffering from several gunshots; one to the left arm, to the rib cage area, to his back and to his left leg.   Sometime around 9:50 (last night) he succumbed to his injuries while receiving surgery.   Our preliminary investigations show that show that Young was at a residence at the corner of Waight Street and Faber’s Road playing cards with several other men when a male person in black clothing came out and fired several shots which all caught him.   We have one suspect detained and I am not at liberty to give his name.”  

Whylie also said that an arrest has been made in the murder Jason Munnings.     

Allen Whylie, OC Eastern Division

“In another matter in the murder of Jason Munnings I am happy to report that persistency from the investigators of that matter as well as the continued support of people it has led us to the apprehension of Jason Joseph, twenty years old construction worker of #25 King’s Street and he has been charged with the crime of murder.”  

During this afternoon’s press briefing, Commissioner of Police Gerald Westby took the time to brief the media on the Operation Cycle Breaker which is being headed by ACP Crispin Jefferies.   He said that the recent incident at Carolyn Westby residence does not reflect the work of the police and he said he has approached Westby to apologize.     

Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police   

“Probably in 20-20 vision we ought to have secured her cooperation to go upstairs and that is what we discussed when we met this afternoon.   I told Ms Westby that we are prepared to compensate but she said no and she appreciated that we went to apologize and she told us the damage was minimal.   Mr. Jefferies will continue to lead the operation and he is a hard working officer.   When he got wind of the situation he went out there probably to apologize personally if it was necessary and this is not to say that every time we go to search   a well known criminal and we find nothing we will have the commissioner coming here to apologize because I will apologize when we are doing out work.   But I thought about it and given the reputation of Mrs Westby and the way it was handled it was only prudent of me as the commissioner to go out there and I am not ashamed to do that and we are never too big to do that.”  

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Jefferies said that the operation will continue and it has not lost momentum based on last week’s incident.   He said that however it has helped in a number of detentions and arrests related to other incidents.      

ACP Crispin Jefferies

“The operation is still in effect and it will continue and we continued the exercise over the weekend and a number of houses have been searched but nothing substantial has been found.   Our last find was on Saturday when we found a small amount of ammunition.   We think that the operation has already used up its elements of surprise and we did that on Thursday and we have scaled down some of the things we are doing and we have been present in the streets in full force since Thursday morning.   The operation has participated with other exercise and we have participated in a number of arrests and detentions of a number of persons and that is people involved in the recent shooting and murders.   We are other there this morning after the robbery and we were able to detain one person that can help with information on the robbery.   We were focused on dealing with the problem as opposed to only running and being enemies and being repressive and abusive.”  

Both Jefferies and Westby agreed that the new strategy has been of great assistance and also shared some the work the Police department is doing with other government departments to address crime in the city.  

ACP Crispin Jefferies

“Prevention cannot be measured and it can only be compared with statistics so when we look at the statistics we can say that he statistics is high or low or fluctuating and our presence out there is preventing.   Last week we met with Mr Hyde, Ms Diane Finnegan and Fermin Olivera and we have been meeting and I have been meeting with people from the prison and we are working on some intervention strategies.   I have been talking to many people in the area where these shootings occur and what are some of the things that are said is not necessarily what the street is saying because when you talk to the victims you are getting a different story…”  

Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police   

“And that is why the Minister is looking at reintroducing the program CYDP and we are looking at the breaking window theory and improve our neighborhoods and taking it block by block and work together with our other local governments.”  

Westby said that the police department has put a halt on the issuance of fire arm license as they believe that it is related to the number of firearms on the streets that eventually lead to criminal activity.   The police department is still in the lookout for four men who can assist in a number of shooting incidents in the city.   They are twenty one year old Herbert Faber, twenty seven year old Randolph Samuels who also goes by the name of Dylan Sheran, twenty two year old Brandon Taylor and nineteen year old Charles Castillo.   The police continue asking for the public’s assistance in locating these men and are asking anyone with information to contact the police department.  

  Seven men were charged with damage to property for a grader valued at 150 thousand dollars owned by Attorney Dean Lindo, when they appeared in Magistrate’s Court today. They are 28 year old John Melendez, 29 year old Jose Vargas and 26 year old Raul Melendez, all Belizeans along with Guatemalans Miguel Biasis and Oscar Duran and Salvadorans Efrain Lopez and Raul Alvarenga. The incident reportedly occurred on April 5. the police reported that acting on information received, they went three miles into the bushes at Miles 8 on the Western Highway and found all the defendants, the grader and a truck and some pieces of metal that were already cut of the grader. The police reported that they also found cutting tools such as a torch, butane gas tank and an oxygen tank. Lindo told police that the vehicles were parked at Poor Man’s Restaurant in Ladyville. All the defendants who are from Burrell Boom were denied bail and remanded into custody until April 9.  

Forty-four year old Erwin Stevenson, an electrician of an Alexandria Street address, charged with attempted arson was denied bail today when he appeared in Magistrate’s Court. The prosecution objected to bail on the grounds that Stevenson might interfere with the complainant and that the offence is becoming prevalent. Magistrate Roberto Ordonez agreed and remanded Stevenson into custody until May 21. The incident occurred about 1:40 yesterday afternoon at a two storey house at 14 Thurton Lane owned by Egbert Bevans. Bevans reported to police that a neighbor called and told him that his house was on fire, but by the time he arrived, the neighbor had already put out the fire. Police investigation led the arrest and subsequent charge of Stevenson.

36 year old Leroy Fuller charged with the burglary of Bull and Sons Grocery shop in Hattieville, was sentenced to three years today in Magistrate’s Court after he was found guilty of the charge. Magistrate Aretha Ford said she did not impose the mandatory sentence of five years because Fuller did not have any previous conviction. The burglary occurred about 9pm on September 16, 2007. Edward Bull, the owner of the shop was on the street talking to a friend and his shop was left unattended. Fuller entered the shop through the back door and stole 110 dollars from the cash drawer. Bull’s wife who was upstairs saw when Fuller entered the shop. Fuller testified and claimed that he was innocent.  

23 year old Lenny Bennett, a resident of Ladyville who was first charged with attempted murder in an incident in which his ex-girlfriend Cristina Zetina was shot in the left leg was charged with maim today in Magistrate’s Court because Zetina’s leg was amputated. Bennett will remain in jail until his next court appearance scheduled for May 14.   Zetina, a resident of Ladyville was shot about 9pm on January 29. She and her boyfriend were returning home from dropping off her mother when the gunman fired about four shots at them. At the time of the incident Bennett was recently released from jail after serving two years. Bennett has three previous conviction for robbery, drug trafficking and drug possession.  

The Ministry of Health along the Pan American Health Organization today joined other Health Care partners and the rest of the world in celebrating World Health Day. As a part of the celebration, a forum was held at the Radisson Fort George Hotel focusing on the theme, protecting health from climate change: a call to action.   Doctor Melanie Mcfield of Healthy Reefs told us more about some of the effects on Climate Change.  

Dr. Melanie Mcfield, Healthy Reefs  

“In Belize maybe what we are talking about shifts in rainfall patterns. Some areas will get drier, some areas will get wetter, but one of the most important things is to be more prone to extreme events, which mean flooding like the flooding we saw last June in Belize City. So those types of thing are predicted to be happening more often. We’ve seen a lot of that in the US this year with tornados and floods out of normal flood season and tornado season. So that’s extending the range of the seasons, changing the range of the season, so when you change rainfall patterns you change agriculture. One of the issues with relating to health is just that food. You were talking about food prices, so that’s a big component of global climate change is that we are going to see changes in agriculture and shifting locations where you may be able to cultivate different food and that may increase prices. That have an effect on health because people can’t afford to eat the way they would like to eat. The water resource is becoming more limited and scarce and that has an effect on health. Also as you change water sources may dry up, in a country like Belize you may have salt intrusion, it’s already a problem in some aquifers, but salt water coming into the fresh water aquifers so that could decrease your amount of fresh water even more. But then there is just changes to ranges of vectors of diseases. But I think the biggest and the one that is most up front in our minds is vulnerability to hurricanes. Increase intensity of hurricanes is well accepted now and the physical weather and meteorology community there is little uncertainties about whether the number of hurricanes will increase but strengthening hurricanes is something that affects a country like Belize. And so we will have to deal with the potential for more serious category four, category five hurricanes coming our way and so that’s a serious health implication.”  

A release from PAHO says that, in the Americas the major areas of concern are increases in extreme weather events, changes in food supply and nutritional distribution and the rising sea levels. Doctor Polanco of the Ministry of health spoke of the issue of water safety.  

Dr. Jorge Polanco, Ministry of Health  

“We have the issue of water safety. If there is a decrease in the volume of water that will affect hygiene in general will contribute to contamination of the limited amount of water. On the other hand there is droughts there a limited amount of water will also lead to certain gastric internal problems simply because the hygiene is affected, the safety of the food of the water is affected. So we have dengue, viral diseases, gastric intestinal problems and a series of viral disease that we have when the environment is affected.”  

During a presentation this morning at the Radisson, the speakers focused on the effects of Climate Change to the industries that contribute directly to the GDP growth in Belize. These include aquaculture, tourism and fisheries. If the effects to these industries aren’t minimized it could affect the economy. Love News also spoke to forecaster Dennis Gonguez.

Dennis Gonguez: Forecaster, National Met. Service  

“From our most reliable station in the country at the Phillip Goldson International Airport, the National Meteorological Service, there is some indication that our temperatures are increasing show that climate change is eminent. There are a couple issues with a changing climate and the impact on our health sector. One of them is the increase in temperatures which could lead to heat stroke and a more uncomfortable environment for people to live in. The other issue is as it relates to the increase in tropical cyclone activity and the strength in the hurricanes that develop. These would pose a threat to us that we would have to seek refuge more often and that put another stress on us, a financial stress and a mental stress that could affect our health. As a country Belize cannot have a major effect on climate change but we can adapt to climate change. We can change lifestyles in order to mitigate or lessen the effects of climate change on us.”  

PAHO says that the recommendations from the forum will be forwarded to the relevant agencies for integration into the national development plans.