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Mother Murdered While Infant Is On Her Back
posted (May 10, 2010)

And while friends of Alex Goff were lining up outside the police station – gunshots were ringing out in Santa Elena town at a restaurant named Alwin's.

It is located on the Western Highway - the main stretch through Santa Elena town – but at 10:30 last night that didn't stop a teenaged trio of gunmen who crept up from behind the building and strode in with cash and killing on their minds. When they left, 27 year old Zhennong Zhen was dead and her small child was wailing. Our team was in Cayo today.

ACP Paul Wade, O.C. Cayo Police
"Around 10:30 that evening three young men in their teens visited the restaurant and ordered food. At that time the husband who is the cook went to prepare the food and shortly thereafter he heard a commotion outside followed by a gun shot. It was then that he came out and discovered that his wife was shot. The robbers then make good their escape but not before taking an unknown quantity of cash and phone cards."

Alberto August, Editor STAR Newspaper, lives across Alwin's
"I was inside like about 1 to 2 minutes when I heard something that appeared to be like a gun shot. I rushed outside, looked around but I didn't see anyone. Shortly after that some crying was coming from inside of the restaurant. It was then I realized that someone might have gotten hurt inside and about 3 minutes later on I saw these 3 guys fully masked rushing outside of the restaurant. One of them heading towards the direction of Belize City and the other two heading towards San Ignacio. But the one that was going towards Belize City turn around and joined the other two and they ran up the road and disappear into the darkness."

Jules Vasquez
"Ok now at that point you went over to the restaurant. These are your neighbors, you have regular and close contact with them."

Alberto August
"Right, I know them, they have been operating that restaurant for the past 18 months. We have been close to the people there and when I saw the guys rushed out I ran downstairs and I was the first person to enter the restaurant. There were two clients, a male and a female customer inside the restaurant. Of course they were happy to see somebody else apart from the attackers in there and they directed me towards the counter, it's a tall counter. Behind the counter was the lady on the floor with a lot of blood around her and the child next to her. I was made to understand that she had the child strap on her back, she fell with the child. The female customer who was in the restaurant is a nurse and so she came up and begin to give the lady first aid but she told us that there was no vital signs at that time."

Jules Vasquez
"And what was the condition of the child?"

Alberto August
"Well the child was screaming and shortly after that people begin to gather, several Chinese people. The child scream and scream from the time Police arrived there until one and half hours after they left. The child might have gotten hurt when the mother fell on top of the child."

Jules Vasquez
"The child was also bathed in blood?"

Alberto August
"Yes, the child was full with blood."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you think, from what you understand, did the woman resist and that's why she was shot?"

Alberto August
"Well the sequence of events was like this, there was a gunshot, then there was some crying, and then the persons exited from the restaurant, so obviously from reading the Police report that was probably the sequence of events that happened because normally when you hear a gunshot you expect people to run. That was not the case. There was the gunshot, there was the person crying in the restaurant and then a few minutes afterwards these 3 persons fled outside the restaurant."

ACP Paul Wade
"There are some leads that we are following that suggest probably that they are not from around here. But as I said this is an open investigation and we continue our best to see if we can bring closure to this."

Alberto August
"It's hard for me to believe, that it was be persons from Santa Elena or San Ignacio. One of the reasons why I am saying that is because as I am following up the story of course to write in my newspaper, the STAR newspaper, I was made to understand that when the guys came down through the dark and they were crossing over the wooden bridge they met a policeman who was out there hanging out and when they arrived there they ask the policeman how deep the river was. The policeman was telling them why are you going to cross over the river when you can cross over the bridge? But they cross over to San Ignacio by the way of the bridge. So they might have been running probably from a vehicle spotting them on the bridge. So obviously if you are from this community, then you going to know how deep the river is."

The bullet went thru Chen's chest and the slug was found on the wall behind her. It exited through her back and just missed the infant who was being carried on her back in a sling. Police have two minors in custody.

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