Another grenade has been detonated in Belize City. It happened this
morning in the Yabra area. The only good news is that no one was killed and
no one was injured. And that has a lot to do with the fact that the grenade
was thrown at dawn on a very cold morning – when no one was out on the
street. That is the only bit of good news: the bad news is that it is the second
grenade to be thrown in exactly two weeks; the last one was thrown on the evening
of Monday December 28th. And like the last one, this one appears to be gang
related. That one was thrown at the main hang out spot for the Kraal Road Gang,
this one at the home of the man considered to be the boss of the Southside gangsters.
Here’s the story of what happened and what police are going to do.
Crispin Jeffries, Commissioner of Police
“It is my duty to take on the responsibility to inform the nation
of yet another heinous incident.”
That heinous incident happened here - #4 Cesar Ridge Road just after 5:00 am.
It is commonly known as the residence of Andre Trapp - seen here walking his
daughter to school. He is considered a key figure in the Southside Gangsters
known as SSG. The grenade exploded here– on the street – about one
and half feet from the fence – a fence which members of SSG are known
to hang out behind. But not on this cold morning at 5:00 am.
And lucky for that because the fence was ripped open by shards of shrapnel.
Apart from the zinc fence, the rear window on this Suburban which is Andre Trapp’s
vehicle was completely smashed. And while the Suburban was in the driveway, 
the residence where Trapp’s uncle, see here in the brown shirt, slept also had its louvers shattered by the force of the explosion.
David Jones, BDF Bomb Expert
“Apparently the grenade was thrown and landed on the fence. After
it hit the fence it rolled back onto the street. Thankfully no one was in the
area and because no one was out, it was dark in the morning, no one was in the
flight path of where the fragments would be going so fortunately no one was
out so no one was able to get hurt.
I observed where the seat of the explosion occurred, which is a about a
foot and a half or so away from the edge of the pavement. It was definitely
a hand grenade that was thrown in the area. Based on the fragments that we’ve
retrieved from the scene, they are the same consistency with the type of grenades
that was used at the Kraal Road incident; the same British type grenade. To
definitely conclusively say yes it was that type of grenade, we are still trying
to find the fly off lever.”
Police used a metal detector to look for the fly off lever but they had no 
luck at all. That is unlike the pin which was found shortly after 10 feet from
the seat of the blast. Remarkably, police say they were expecting an attack.
Crispin Jeffries,
“We believe that for the last two weeks or more we’ve been hearing
information that grenades would be thrown in the general area. So it is not
something new and it is something that has been anticipated. Those persons in
the area have been in that state of readiness and preparedness for this kind
of thing. So it is indeed nothing new to hear that it had occurred.”
And for this battered neighbourhood, it is nothing new at all. See this green
house across the way? That’s where a grenade was detonated in November
of 2008. It’s only about 200 feet diagonally across from today’s
explosion! And the Dean Tillett murder happened December ninth, 2009 a month
ago – just across the way as well.
It is a violent area but it is also a community in which you will find one
of the strongest police presences. Police and BDF maintain regular patrols.
There’s a police booth just down the street from where the grenade was
thrown and there is also the Yabra Community Center – also just down the
street. But despite all that it still happened.
Crispin Jeffries,
“The booth is there, the booth is not the police. The police officer 
and the soldiers were on patrol. They leave from that booth and they should
visit that booth every hour or so. They are not housed in the booth and they
should not remain there throughout. At the material time of this incident they
were out on foot patrol.”
Marion Ali, News 5
“The fact that you had such heavy military presence…”
Crispin Jeffries,
“I don’t know what you mean by heavy military and police presence.
We have maintained a foot patrol in the area. That has never stopped and there
is no intention to stop it now.”
So what’s next in the urban terror era?
Crispin Jeffries,
“There is nothing that has so far indicated to us a time and place
or date of any other attacks but we’ll keep a vigilance.”
And while police don’t know where the next strike will be, they did say
that the effort to suppress another attack continues.
Crispin Jeffries,
“I can confirm to you that I spoke to the Prime Minister since this
incident today, I have spoken to the Minister of National Security and the directive
is the same: do what is necessary to bring this matter under control. Unfortunately
for us the information that need is not there. We know that we are looking here
at 6 groups of persons who loosely fit themselves together and call themselves
gangs and we’ve been focusing on those and we have additional groups that
we are also focusing on.
The police has launched an operation to suppress this issue. We have been
targeting persons on a day to day basis since the 30th of December and that
has continued and will continue for another 90 days minimum. We have invested
some money and we are hoping that their own will deliver them to us. We don’t
want to make enemies but we want to rid ourselves of this problem.”
Jules Vasquez,
“Is there a deliberate effort to use the maximum force necessary to suppress
and excuse the term, smoke out?”
Crispin Jeffries,
“That’s like asking me if I am Crispin Jeffries, Mr. Vasquez.
Force is nothing new to me. But I believe that force must be justifiably and
proportionately.”
But no amount force can tell them where the grenade will turn up or blow up
– and until then, the community is as powerless as the police and nowhere
is safe.
Up to news time Police had still not recovered the fly-off lever. Word
on the street is that police are offering a $500 cash reward for it. An $800
dollar reward is also being offered by what Jeffries says is a civilian group
for any of the British Grenades. There are an estimated 17 of them still in
circulation. This is the fifth grenade to be detonated in Belize City since
May of 2008. The BDF reports finding grenade clusters as much as 100 feet away.
Residents as much as 500 feet away told us their homes shook when the grenade
exploded.
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