Exactly 4 weeks ago, Constable Euwin Armstrong was murdered, and today another police officer, his squad brother, constable Nedi Reymundo was killed. But even more chilling is the brazen fashion in which this young constable was executed in the broad daylight of the city streets, on the day before Christmas. Reymundo, a resident of Orange Walk who was attached to the Maskall police station, was taking his day off in the city, and has just gotten a trim at his barber on the canal side. That's would be the last thing he would do. 7NEWS was on the scene.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
The Christmas bustle of downtown Belize City turned into a tragic spectacle at around 10:30 this morning as off duty police officer Neri Reymundo was shot in the head as he walked out of Dale's Barbershop located on East Canal. Mushae McDonald was one of the first on the scene and he showed us his blood stained shirt and pants leg. The blood smears were picked up when he assisted the young constable as he took his last breaths.
Mushae McDonald,
"I was passing the same time, I saw the crowd, and like most Belizeans I stopped to see what was happening. So I saw the man down there and it looked like he got shot in his head. The man was still moving and like 4 or 5 policemen were sitting around him and even though he wasn't dead yet, none of them tried to stop a vehicle to take him to the hospital. That's bogus and that noh ready so I put him in my vehicle and took him. I met the ambulance by Rene's Store and they took it over from there. But as far as I am concerned he wasn't dead yet because he was still moving and thing so me and a next young man took him and we were trying to tell him not to give up and hold on to life and thing."
Jules Vasquez,
What did the man look like, what were the injuries?
Mushae McDonald,
"Well it looked like a gunshot, I am not sure. To be exact I think the shot was on the right side and right there I saw a big hole. I think only a miracle could have made him survive that, trust me."
But that miracle did not come on this Christmas Eve and the 21 year old officer died while being transported to the KHMH. And as he was enroute there the police investigators and analysts were looking for a motive, a suspect and clues but there was none that could be clearly defined. And as much as the spectators looked on at the pool of blood on the street so too did the police department's high command, the commissioner designate and his deputy, who could not believe that on this day before Christmas another officer would be downed.
Maureen Leslie, Assistant Commissioner
"This is next to ridiculous but we are trying extremely hard; as you know we have all the patrols out. As of this morning we have over 20 mobiles, the first time we have 20 mobiles, a lot of foot patrols and still we have a shooting incident downtown Belize City and in this sad case for us it's another police officer. "
Alfonso Noble,
The weight department now has to carry with this second officer down in one year within a space of two months.
Maureen Leslie, Assistant Commissioner
"It happens. It's sad and as I've said it's a very sad thing but policing is a high risk job. Lucky for us he was not in his uniform so we're not sure if police were the target or just an individual at the wrong place at the wrong time at this point."
And while today he was on East Canal at the wrong time, on the 1st of this month he was at fellow officer Euwin Armstrong's funeral. He was one of the pall bearers and was in fact the one who received the flag before it was handed over to Commissioner of Police Jose Carmen Zetina to be taken to Armstrong's wife. Now another officer will do what Reymundo did just 24 days ago, this time however the flag will be given to his family members.
Police recovered two expended casings from the scene and one live hollow point 9 millimeter round. So far, investigators cannot say what was the motive for the shooting: one theory is that it may have been a case of mistaken identity with a young man from Belize City who resembles Reymundo. At this point, though, police have ruled out robbery. An in that regard, they today went to the home of Mushae McDonald, the good citizen you just saw in that piece, to look for a chain that had been around constable Reymundo's neck when he was shot. They didn't find it and McDonald's family was deeply angered and insulted by the intrusion.
