Email

Print

There was a murder and a shooting on San Pedro on Friday night; police believe both events are connected and that they are also possibly drug related. It started at around 6 on Friday night when a man went rushing to the police station reporting that there had been a shooting in the rocky point area which is fifteen miles north of San Pedro.

When a joint Police and BDF headed out there – they came under fire in the Boca El Rio Area. The boat the gunfire was coming from matched the description of the one that had been involved in the shooting. Police ordered the vessel to stop and after a brief chase, it did. But when police pulled up to it, they saw one of the two occupants standing with what appear to be firearm in his hand pointing in their direction. The police fired at the person who turned out to be Eric Swan. The other man then jumped overboard, swam towards the mangroves and escaped.

Swan had been shot to the upper right leg, and also found in the vessel were, six live 7.62 rounds of ammunition. Swan was taken to the San Pedro Polyclinic and later transported to the KHMH where he remains in stable condition under guard.

And it doesn’t end there; far from it actually. Later in the evening, Joseph Smith, a 31 year-old carpenter of DFC Area San Pedro Town reported to police that he was held up at gun point by persons fitting the description in the same vessel, in the Rocky Point area, where they took away his two tanks of fuel leaving him drifting in his skiff.

That was it for Friday night, but then the next day, at about 8:00am Brionne Swift, 29 years, of Boca del Rio area, San Pedro Town reported to police that he believed that his friend John Paul Saldivar had been shot the day before in the Rocky Point area and might be still be alive. So police continued with what was their mission in the first place and visited an area about 16 miles north of Ambergris Caye, where they found Saldivar lying face up on the seashore. He was dead and had apparently been tortured. The investigating officer Sergeant John Sanchez told us how the body was found.

Sgt. John Sanchez, San Pedro Police
“So we visited that area which is located some sixteen miles or so north of this island, San Pedro, where upon arrival police saw the lifeless body of a male Hispanic person lying on the shoreline, partly nude, with appeared to be gunshot wounds to the head, the upper left leg, and the lower right leg, accompanied by numerous bruises all over the body. This person was later identified by one of his family members or his brother to be more precise, to be that of John Paul Saldivar.”

Kainie Manuel, Reporting for San Pedro Sun
“Do you suspect this to be drug related?”

Sgt. John Sanchez,
“Well I would not really want to comment on that at this stage of the investigation. As I mentioned earlier, it is yet premature for us to comment along those lines.”

Kainie Manuel,
“Information has been received that it might be drug related and you’re attesting to that, but it also involves organized Belize City gang members. Can you comment on that?”

Sgt. John Sanchez,
“As I mentioned earlier, we have some persons detained. We have persons in police custody and some of these persons are from Belize City.”

Kainie Manuel,
“Are they known drug ring leaders, members –are they known trouble makers?”

Sgt. John Sanchez,
“Well I won’t comment on the character of these persons as that would certainly be a violation to their rights.”

The searched of the area near to the body resulted in the discovery of a 9mm Glock pistol along with a magazine with 13 live 9mm rounds. Also found in the area were two black warm caps adapted as masks, a flash light and a cellular phone. It is notable that also seized as part of the investigation, is a large quantity of us currency. Eric Swan is additionally wanted in connection with a report of robbery in the Stann Creek District. The Commissioner of Police has dispatched head National Crimes Investigation, Senior Superintendent James Magdaleno and the Police Internal Affairs Division personnel to conduct a thorough investigation.