In the eleven and a half hours between 6:30 last night and 6:00 am
this morning – two people were murdered, one is on life support and three
others including a 7 year old girl were injured. It is – in the words
of the Caribbean poet – “the festival of guns, the carnival of misery”....and
what makes it incredible is that all this gunplay happened on one straight-a-way,
a mile-long stretch of Central American Boulevard. We’ve brought up a
map to show – again - in what tight proximity these shootings occurred
and we stress two of them were homicides, and the other victim is on life support
with a grim prognosis.
The first shooting occurred at the corner of Faber’s Road and
Central American Boulevard, that’s the dot in the center of your screen
– the second was at the corner of Neal’s Pen Road and Central American
Boulevard – that’s the dot at the upper right of your screen, and
the third happened on the long curve heading up to the Port of Belize. It’s
a span that’s less than a mile – again, on a single straight-away
– which residents lamented makes it inexplicable why police could not 
establish a sustained presence in that area.
We have stories on all three shootings and we will present them in
reverse order of occurrence beginning with the most recent which occurred this
morning at 6:00. The victim was a business man, a tour guide actually –
who was preparing his tour vans for a full day but just after daybreak he was
gunned down. We were on the scene shortly after.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
33 year old Glenston Martinez was killed – shot in the head at close range
right at the door of the van he used for his touring service. Just after 6:00
this morning the tour operator and restaurant owner was washing his van in front
of his home and business here on Central American Boulevard when a young appearing
to be a teenager rode up, exchanged a few words and shot him. His mother Casmore
Martinez who lives with him tried to pick up the blood soaked rag he was washing
the van with.
Casmore Martinez, Mother
“He was washing the van and I saw a little young boy around 14 years 
came up around the van and came this side and was talking to him. I didn’t
hear what he asked him or what he was telling him but I presumed probably it
was money he was asking for. So Glenston told the little boy something and he
still leaned on the van and Glen came away coming to the van door and when Glen
turned to the van door, when I listened I heard pow pow and then when I looked
I saw Glen gone like this and said oh my God my poor pickney got shot. The little
boy jumped on a bicycle, he had a bicycle right there, and he jumped on the
bicycle and he went up the street there. He had on a sports shirt and a little
red jersey pants.”
Patrick Jones, LOVE FM
“Did you hear what was being said between your son and the shooter?”
Casmore Martinez,
“No I didn’t hear anything. The only thing I presume is that
he was asking him for money because wasn’t no talking, no hard talking,
nothing.”
But Martinez was not robbed – the young gunman just shot him and rode
off – which raises questions about the nature of this cold blooded killing
and whether Martinez had prior association with his killer.
Jules Vasquez,
“Ma’am have you ever seen the young who approached your son before?”
Casmore Martinez,
“No, no. We don’t go anywhere, we stay right here. I don’t 
know the person but I watched the little boy good this morning, it was a little
boy, an innocent little boy. I couldn’t believe that he had a gun on him.
I could not believe that he had a gun on him. That gun is probably something
small because I didn’t see the gun but he was like this to my son so it
is a close range shot he got.”
And according to his mother there was no need to rob him.
Casmore Martinez,
“He will come right here and people would say Glen lend me a $50 or
Glen I want this, Glen I want that, and he would leave himself out. I see sometimes
his drivers, his men friends would come and call Glen I am stuck on the road 
and he would get up and he would go.”
Horace Lopez, Co-Worker
“Glenston doesn’t mess with anybody at all. He goes to work
in the morning when there is a cruise ship, he does his work on the cruise ship,
he comes back, goes to deliver his food to different offices in Belize. As far
as I know Glenston has no enemy. He is a very hard working young man and very
friendly and he always tries to help whoever he can. I don’t know why
they would kill somebody like Glenston.”
And now his mother says she can’t just leave it at that.
Casmore Martinez,
“God will do the rest but I need justice and if we don’t get justice from the law, I will find it somewhere else because I am God’s
child. I will find it because that is not fair. That is a hardworking innocent
person, he was washing his van.”
And as we left, the same van he was cleaning when he was killed was being washed
clean of its owners blood - a stunning and sudden reversal of fortune and it
has left his fiend and colleague Horace Lopez reeling.
Horace Lopez,
“You hear about crime everyday and it doesn’t hurt you but when
it hits somebody that you know personally it hurts you in the heart. So I am
appealing to the Police Department to do something about the situation in Belize.
What would it take for them to stop the crime in Belize, they need to get all
the guns off the streets. I want to appeal to the Police Department, Mr. Jeffries,
please do something about this crime because it is happening too much. People
are being killed like birds in Belize.”
A 15 year old suspect has been detained.
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