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Carnival Season Starts On Sour Note With Attack on Child
posted (September 2, 2019)
It should be about revelry and dancing in the street, but on Friday night, the Carnival season started out on a sour note.

A 10 year old girl was stoned in the head - at the end of the Carnival motorcade that signals the start of Carnival.

Her group, Jump Street Posse Junior Band - which is a fixture of carnival - was at the tail end of the motorcade when a few of their spectators started throwing stones at the kids. Cherisse Halsall tells us what happened next:

Cherisse Halsall reporting
It's the band motorcade that marks the start of the Carnival season. But during the jump up and revelry on Friday night, a few of the spectators began throwing stones and broken pieces of cement blocks at one of the floats. Two people, including a 10 year old girl were injured.

This amateur video from facebook shows a child being held after being stoned in the head.

Today her grandmother, a veteran of the carnival for many years, spoke to us off camera in fears that her house could be targeted. Her question: Why would anyone want to harm children who were just having fun?

Voice of: Marina Welcome, Band Leader, Jump Street Posse
"I keep asking myself the same thing because an eyewitness keeps stating that the young man said they will target the last truck. Everybody on Cesar Ridge knows this band. They are our fans we eck for them why we pass around there. So why I wish they would tell me why? Why do they do that? And not only my truck any. It's fun. My question I keep asking is Why, Why, Why?"

"We were on the truck when somebody screamed and hollered Ms. Marie your granddaughter got hurt, so I said hurt how and then they said they burst her head. So then I started to scream out to have her come to me and then when she came to me she was bleeding. So you know I got angry, right. We came off of the truck and stopped the police that were passing by and they took her to the hospital. At the hospital she received three stitches."

"I think if I had caught that guy I'd be in jail right now, and not only because it was my granddaughter. All those kids are under my protection. I think I would have felt that way for anyone of them, you know. Because it's sad it's kids they're having fun. Why stoop so low to that level and throwing cement block in a truck full of people."

As the leader of Jump Street Posse Ms. Welcome has a passion for the carnival and has cast children in her bright and colorful spectacles for years. Now, as she and her granddaughter carry on with the road march she is asking that police do their part to make carnival safe and fun for everyone involved.

Marina Welcome, Band Leader, Jump Street Posse
"What is Belize coming to? You do not do things like that. They could have killed her because you know head injury is a bad damage. It could have been worse. Two people got damaged her and a Marshall. Thank God the Marshall one wasn't bad either."

"For me as a band leader I'm thinking twice to have carnival. I'm worried right now about the road march because I have like 65 kids to protect you know so I'm worried about the road march right now I'm asking them to please send out excessive police force and guide the kids, especially."

The young victim was advised to sit out the first day of school to rest. And while it is a major public safety issue, police refused to address it as today's press briefing.

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