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3 men in a pickup came under heavy fire from a rival gang as they were entering the city - and they raced directly to the KHMH where the dying driver crashed into the hospital's main entrance. Jomarie Lanza reports:

The trio were traveling in this silver Ford explorer, which ended up crashing into the KHMH Sunday morning in a desperate attempt to save their lives after they came under fire on the Northern highway upon passing Titanic Night club. 22 year old Joseph Lee Garcia did not survive, while Cameron August and Ronlee Petillo who was the intended target are still being treated. The Commissioner says that they were being trailed from when they left Maxbourough

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Ronlee Petillo and his group were coming from the area of Haulover bridge into Belize City when they were followed by a white vehicle and that would be a white car and a silver four runner and upon reaching the area of the flour mill the vehicle overtook them, and occupants from that white car fired multiple shots at the vehicle, Petillo and his group were in fatally injuring one person. Mr Petillo is admitted in a stable condition and contrary to what some media houses have reported that he got shot in the neck and is critical that is not true he got a graze to the back of the head and a shot to the hand. And he is in good spirits and is stable. The other person is in critical condition and is in the ICU we are hoping he will be able to pull through. So far we have been on the grounds trying to view as much surveillance footage as we can but yesterday being a holiday we were not able to gather as much as we would want to and so today the investigators are extremely busy to put together the pieces to see if we can come to a determination as to who is responsible for that particular incident."

"The Young man who died is certainly innocent. He is from Dangriga and apparently he just came up and took Petillo to the Maxborugh area and because he was with Petillo he became a victim of those circumstances."

It was a scary experience for all persons involved especially for those on staff that morning. The CEO for the KHMH says it was surely an eye opener for them but thankfully no one was hurt.

Chandra Cansino, CEO, KHMHA
"Well from our perspective, our understanding is based on the police report which is that someone opened fire on the vehicle which was not far away from the hospital. It was a little bit down the northern highway and then they came straight to the hospital. Unfortunately I think because of the seriousness of the injuries the driver was unable to make it to the emergency unit."

"Well they drove straight into where you saw the truck is actually the cafeteria so thankfully there are no patients there but we do have our staff there and so we were concerned both for them and for the integrity of the building and so we got someone to come in yesterday to look at that and the integrity of the building is fine we do have some major damages to the wall and so we had closed down the cafeteria for a little while yesterday and you know give the staff some support but we are back and running today as normal."

"Well we are looking and we have been trying as you have seen we have barrier here at the beginning and then we have another one down there we try to have the traffic, follow the correct flow of traffic which is entering on the right and leaving on the left and it just does not happen and so yes we will have to sit-down and look at more stricter measures to ensure that the traffic flows on this main entrance is addressed."

While things could have ended much worse according to the Compol to the best of their judgement driving to the hospital was a much better option than stopping.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"It was a good thing and yes it did not end as well as we would have wanted to because they ended up crashing into the hospital and I think a security guard was injured. Thank god it was not more than that but the hospital authorities were able to come out quickly and provide support for them getting them to the hospital and start to treat them as quickly as the could have so I think that their action helped in making sure that they were not injured more because had they stopped on the scene they were shot certainly the gunmen would have stopped and finished them off so I believe they took the calculated decision to just speed. Off to the hospital and it worked out well for them I would want to say."

But for the staff at KHMH it did not work out in alignment with their accident and emergency plan, especially when it comes to these types of incidents. Cansino says they are working to see how they can improve their efficiency even for occurrences as drastic as what had happened Sunday.

Chandra Cansino, CEO, KHMHA
"We have a very prepared accident and emergency unit which is not where the vehicle came unfortunately but even yesterday when the accident happened, people and personnel were here and they took the patient straight to the emergency unit we do have ramped up surveillance and we are working along with the police they actually have some police officers here as well but our concern is for the safety of the patients and the staff as a priority so we have ramped up our surveillance and our security and we are working along with the police in that regard."

Petillo is in a stable condition, while the other victim Shamar Faber is critical.