7 News Belize

Cayo Construction Worker Murdered In City
posted (May 24, 2018)
We turn now to the last night's late breaking story of another murder Belize City. It happened around 6:00 at the corner of Dolphin and Gibnut Streets, just as a downpour was coming down on the city. The 2 victims were two construction workers, one only 19, the other 21. They were working men from out district, and they went to a shop nearby shop to buy food. Unfortunately, they were gunned down in what appears to be a random, senseless shooting.

Daniel Ortiz has that story:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
21 year-old Carl Christian Coc was gunned down right here on the corner of Dolphin and and Gibnut Streets.

He is from Cayo, but recently, he's been working in Belize City with a team of construction workers on the Maud Williams High School compound.

He and his co worker, 19 year-old Gian Michael Moro, were purchasing food, at a nearby Chinese Store, when a dark-complexioned gunman opened fire on both of them.

ASP Alejandro Cowo - OC, CIB Belize City
"The first male person was learned to be Gian Michael Mooro, a Benque Viejo construction worker, who is presently working at a construction site here in Belize City. He had an apparent gunshot wound to the right side of the hip and a graze to the left side of his neck. Also, police observed another male person by the name of Christian Coc, who had an apparent gunshot wound to the neck and to the lower part of his body. Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment at the hospital."

"What we have gathered so far is that both of them are construction workers who were working here at the Maud Williams compound in the construction of the building and they had just left from there to go and purchase some items at a nearby Chinese store at the corner of Gibnut Street and Dolphin Street when they were approached by a male person who just fired several shots in their direction which caused the fatal injuries and injuring the other male person."

After the shooting, first responders tried to get Coc and Mooro help, including a man who agreed to speak with us off-camera

Voice of: First Responder
"We saw the young man coming and he was holding his chest and he wasn't running fast, but he was at a very slow pace. Then we noticed that he got shot and so I started to pay attention to him and I noticed that blood was dripping through his arms and he was covering his heart area. So what I did, I started to flag the vehicles that were passing by. I made 3 attempts, the third attempt, one stop which was a taxi man and luckily there was a police or soldier and I stop him and he was calling for help. It was raining and he help the young man got out of the taxi and into a van and they took him."

Coc may have been killed in a random shooting; police don't know for sure, and it's one of the elements of this crime that they are trying to determine.

Reporter
"These were working men without any known affiliation in the city as I understand it. Do you have any idea why they were targeted?"

ASP Alejandro Cowo - OC, CIB Belize City
"It is something that we are looking at at this moment. We don't have a motive as to why they could have been the possible target or if they were the targets."

Voice of: First Responder
"It was really sad to see a young man - he was a Hispanic - age 21. He is very young. It is very disturbing because you could go in the streets and you could be victim of these violence and I think the government needs to do something about this, because this is happening almost every night, every time we are getting these types of violence."

We spoke with Carl Coc's co-workers at the construction site at the Maud Williams High School, and they told us that they did not know much about him. They told us that after working hours, each employee goes their separate way, and there was not much socializing. However, they had only good things to say about his work ethic while he was on the job.

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