Email

Print

Courtney Menzies went to put it all together and here is her story.

George Brown would have turned 19 in 9 days, and he would have been spending that birthday in Belize, at his home in Hopkins. The Belizean American moves back and forth between the two countries, spending months at a time at each one. He even had big plans for his future for when he went back.

But those plans were cut short by the knife he was stabbed with this morning.

Marie Brown, Mother of Deceased
"Early this morning my son got up around 7 and told me he was going by Kat's Cafe to have a cup of coffee. He told me to tell his cousin Jayden when he comes by that he's at Kat's having a cup of coffee. Then I get a phone call, my daughter's boyfriend, they had an altercation over his jacket because he saw him with his jacket on and the next minute I hear that he got stabbed."

"I was lost for words, I was numb. I was in shock."

This is Brown's jacket - one of his favorites that he had for a while. He loaned it to his sister, so when he saw her boyfriend, Stephen Flores wearing it, he asked for it back. That's when Flores allegedly hopped off his bicycle and threw it at Brown.

After that a fight ensued during which Flores pulled out a the knife. After Brown was stabbed, he ran around the lane to this yard before his cousin picked him up and tried to take him to get help. However, he died before they could get there.

And while there is no justification for murder, the one-hundred plus dollar jacket is a trivial reason, but Brown's mother said that they knew Flores was trouble from the start.

Marie Brown, Mother of Deceased
"From the first beginning, I didn't want to be negative but I didn't like him from the first beginning because he was, I never liked his behavior, something about him and I just kept warning her about him, when you gonna let go, when you gonna let go? Because he was abusive, he was violent, and my husband before he died, he never had any kind of communication because he never liked him. I'm not supposed to come on social media and say this but something about him that we never did approve of."

Almost immediately following the stabbing, police arrived on scene, and chaos erupted. We see a shirtless Flores walking away from the scene and Brown's still shocked family slam on a parked car. As, Brown's family follows, they become gripped by anger and began shouting and throwing rocks at Flores as he walked away with an officer. the cops try to quell the chaos but it quickly spirals out of control - so much so that one officer didn't even have a chance to put down the knife suspected to have been used to kill Brown.

With the cops firing warning shots into the air, Flores returns with a machete and the men throwing the rocks scatter. Flores runs past the cop with the knife and pursues the men with the rocks. The officer tries feebly to chase after them.

In the end, the cops were able to detain Flores and take him to the Dangriga Police Station for his safety.

It's a tragic and turbulent incident, compounded for Brown's mother as she now deals with the murder of the baby of her family along with the recent death of her husband.

Marie Brown, Mother of Deceased
"His dad just died the 30th of October and the plan was to, we got here on the 5th of December and the 8th of December went to the island, Bread and Butter Caye, to dash his ashes on the water, because that was his dad's wishes. And the plan was to be here for a few months. His dream was that he wanted to go to the Navy but since his dad was battling cancer for the past 3 and a half year so that put aside for him to follow his dreams, but since we're here for the memorial service, so he was planning when we go back, he wanted to go in the Navy, that was his dream. They cut my son's life short."

And Brown said that her son was always eager to return home to Belize.

Marie Brown, Mother of Deceased
"My son, he liked to keep to himself, he liked to play his music. He didn't have a lot of friends. Back in the States he would say, mom, I can't wait to go back home to be with my friends, just to have his little fun with his friends and his cousins. His favorite cousin was Jayden. And since he got here he was with Jayden every night, Jayden comes to spend the night here and they were back and forth in the cayes for the past few days. And..."

"To me, it's like a dream, I still can't believe it, I'm still in shock. It's hard, it's not easy and I just lost his dad two months ago. So it's not easy."

"He was just like his dad, everything about his dad. I don't even want to talk about it."

Prior to this, Brown had been in the US for 8 months.