For the third consecutive day, Belize City police are investigating another case of murder.
Sometime around 11 last night, residents of the Marigold and Jasmine Streets area in Lake Independence found the body of Gilbert Reyes dead in the street. He had been stabbed to death, a shocking and mysterious end, for an easygoing man, who friends tell us, had few enemies.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
At around 10 last night residents in the area of Jasmine Street say they saw a man making his way down Marigold Lane and falling just before reaching the intersection with Jasmine Street.
Eyewitness,
"We just see last night that the young man was coming from up there and then we saw him fall down. I told my friend and he said where and I told him right down there. The man then said he was tired and then after that he dropped and he was bleeding. I don't know if he was bleeding inside or what but some boys had taken some water and wet him. They did that because they thought he was drunk but he didn't wake up."
The man, 45-year-old Gilbert Reyes, could not get up because he had been stabbed in the chest and died where he fell. His cousin Joyce Ramirez says he was here at this yard on Tibruce Street earlier that night but he left.
Joyce Ramirez, Victim's Cousin
"He left from here last night at about after 6 or 7. He left from here and went out to that side because he said he was going to work for Davis. I don't know what happened to him. I thought a vehicle knocked him down. I don't know what happened to him."
But while she does not know what happened to him police have begun their investigation and as a result of this they have detained a man identified as Ervil Garnett. However, both Garnett's sister Louise Ramirez and his cousin Joyce Ramirez say that the police have the wrong man.
Louise Ramirez, Sister of Detainee
"They have my brother Ervil Garnett detained. I don't really agree with that because my brother is a mental patient and he just came out of sickness like two weeks ago. The real person who they are supposed to hold, they don't have hold."
Joyce Ramirez,
"He and Ervil didn't have any problem. They just liked to play with one another but Ervil never did once hit him or anything."
So with family members standing up to defend the one suspect police have the case has become a lot more complicated for investigators.
While police have Garnett in custody they are also looking for others. That was the third city homicide reported in 48 hours.