There was another murder last night in Belize City - when 30 year-old Erbin Enrique Garrido was killed inside his home.
It happened at around 8:00 in the CET Site area, which is just off Holy Emmanuel Street. It's a neighborhood that has seen a number of incidents of gun violence, and residents from this area say that at night, they close up and go to bed early. Garrido was inside his house, but that didn't stop a gunman from ruthlessly executing him in his living room.
Our news team has been following the story today, and Daniel Ortiz reports:
Police found 30 year-old Erbin Enrique Garrido inside his house, here in the CET Site Area of Belize City.
Responding to reports of shots being fired, the cops ended up here, and when they got inside the house, they found "Bing", as he was also called, lying face up, dead from a gunshot to the chest.
His sister, Eliza Chan, was hoping that it would not be confirmed that he was the latest murder victim in Belize City
Voice of: Eliza Chan - Sister of the Deceased
"I got into a group chat and I talk to a policeman and he told me that - I told him please don't tell me it's my brother that got shot and he asked my what is my brother's name and I give him his name and when I have him the name he asked me if I have a picture, so I sent him the picture and he tell me yes that is the person and he said he got shot in his chest and he died. So I left where I was at and went to the hospital and we meet the mobile there and then I look in the mobile and I see my brother wrapped up in a blanket and I opened the blanket and I see - well I notify of a tattoo that he have one his right hand and I tell my sister this is our brother. Then I move the sheet from his face and I see that it was him, he was still warm, little blood was on his ears and I only see the gunshot wound that was on the left side of his chest when the doctor come pronounce him that he died."
Police investigation indicates that Garrido was inside his house when a lone gunman came and fired the shot which hit him in the chest. Suggestions are that the shooter stood on a "London Bridge" used to get into his yard, and that's where he fired from. His family believes that the shooter actually opened fire on him in close range. They also suspect that Garrido knew this gunman, and that he may have allowed his killer into his home.
It is believed that the assailant shot Garrido in the chest, and he tried to flee to bathroom, where he collapsed and died.
His family is puzzled about who these possible enemies are, and why they wanted him dead. His sister says that his Facebook postings were starting to raise alarm bells for her, but she let him be, since he is an adult who can make his own choices:
Voice of: Eliza Chan
"I no see my brother for almost a year or so but when we see each other we see on Facebook and thing, through social media I see him and then I see some things that he put up on Facebook, it's not normal so I know that he was worried and things were going wrong for he but we couldn't have helped him because it's not that he doesn't listen but he is a grown man and then he believe he should take his responsibility and do what he want in life."
Whatever the reason he was killed, his family says that he was no gangster to be gunned down like he was last night.
Voice of: Eliza Chan
"I never encounter my brother in any trouble. Maybe the only problem I had with him the last time was with police was with drugs, weed. It was never no gun or he the broke into anybody house - I don't know my brother like that, I don't know my brother to go shoot nobody or know that my brother have a gun or thing but again it's the friends that he choose, the friends and I guess that is what caused his death. He was always a fun brother, he liked to party, he like drink, he like smoke, he liked to have fun and like work. He was a hard working young man. He like work when there is little work to do, he will do it and I never got not problem with my brother."
"I have no hope in the police, I believe it is an open and close case. People nowadays, people are not talking, you barely the find witnesses because people get threatened, they get afraid that somebody might come and kill them because of what they saw, so people don't talk about these things here. It done happened, we can't bring him back, he done dead and we have to live with, we have to move on, we can't the think about retaliate on anybody because that is not in our family, we're not into those kind of thing there."
Garrido's family tells us that he is a father of 4 children.
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