There have been 18 homicides in Belize since the start of what it appears will be another year of living dangerously. And even though another youth was killed on the southside, this time police say it is a justifiable homicide because the man pulling the trigger was a Police Constable who drew his gun in self-defense.
That's the official story, but when we arrived on the scene on Euphrates Avenue after 11:00 Saturday night, an outraged community had no patience for the official version they say it was a cold blooded killing. Here's the story.
Jules VasquezReporting,
21-year-old Leslie Rogers Jr. was a student at St. John's College Sixth Form and worked in the tourism industry but on Saturday night, this pool of blood on the Euphrates Avenue sidewalk was the only memory left of him after he was shot by police. It is a sight that enraged his friends.
Friend #1,
"See our little bwoy marrow is on the ground. Denroy Barrow did that for nothing, nothing."
Friend #2,
"Jules those policemen killed my lil bwoy for nothing, innocently."
Jules Vasquez,
Explain what went on.
Friend #2,
"Denroy Barrow think Leslie Rogers had a gun. A police officer isn't supposed to shoot anybody in their back. You should shoot a man for warning in his foot."
Friend #3,
"Hear who shoot the man right - dah Ayuso shoot the man, when the man the come running he came around in his patrol thing (vehicle) and shoot the man. Its not Denroy Barrow, its Ayuso who shoot the man."
Friend #2,
"Execution. Broad thing right there and they got witness who see they kill the man in broad thing right there."
Police chased him through this alley between Amara and Euphrates Avenues and say he pulled a Ruger 9 millimeter pistol that looks something like this. When he did, Constable Ayuso pulled his weapon and shot him in the head. But his friends say he had no gun:
Friend #2,
"If the man had a gun or if the man had drugs, we noh mind but the man had nothing; they killed an innocent man. This dah wah man who is going to school, he is going to school. He going to John's sixth form. He was going to the concert. All he was doing was coming across here to get something to eat. The boy was walking through the alley and we was waiting on him to get ready and this man...bwoy I tell you Jules what piss me off is that the man innocent: he didn't have no gun, he didn't have no drugs, and nothing. All they are bex (mad) about is that they never grab the man in the riot."
Jules Vasquez,
He was in Belmopan for the riot?
Friend #1,
"They are targeting Amara right now. Everybody who they buck on Amara police abuse up.
Friend #2,
"They want everybody off of Amara who was in Belmopan."
Of course, Constable Aldo Ayuso was also up in Belmopan seen famously chasing the protestors home. It's a mix of motives and intrigues that hardly matter to this father who came out to see his only son dead on the sidewalk.
Victim's Father,
"Mi bredda that is the only son I got, one son. I feel it, one son name just like me. Everybody knows me and I try keep out of trouble and try stay out of everything. I am a sports man and my team is Lady Rebels, I involved in sports. I hate to hear this 'bout my son but I just hope it goes the right way and they investigate and we go deeper into it and if they find the policeman noh have the right to shoot him, then I think they should have justice the right way because things like this are getting out of hand."
And on Saturday night things were out of hand on Euphrates Avenue and for these young men it's a death that cannot be go un-avenged.
Friend #2,
"These police are looking to start a riot you know. These people are starting something simple because they shoot an innocent man."
Friend #1,
"You see Ayuso there, he ride around Belize street like he is a real [expletive] gundelario and chance people, that is all they do. The police have to do something about those crooked or else we will do something you know, me say so."
Friend #2,
"Me personally they might have to kill me because if one them don't go to jail for my lil bwoy murder, because that is a murder you know, that is a murder Jules; that is a wanton murder."
Jules Vasquez,
He didn't pull any gun on the police?
Friend #2,
"He noh got no gun, they don't got nothing Jules. Jules something have to come out of this man, something have to come out of this. No police can't walk off of this, Ayuso can't walk off of this, he has to go to jail for this. He can't walk off."
And with that rage, these friends of the deceased washed the blood off the sidewalk but will not forget so easily.
Leslie Rogers was getting ready to celebrate his 22nd birthday, which would have been tomorrow.
