A security guard at a nightclub in Belize City is tonight facing criminal charges for killing one of the club's patrons. 28-year-old Michael Pou was shot outside of the Copa Cabana Nightclub early Saturday morning. Police say he was shot by the club's security guard 25-year-old Glenford Soberanis after the two had an argument. It is an argument which witnesses say date back to last week when Pou allegedly disrespected Soberanis. Pou's family says the shooting was a straight-up execution but police say it was more like manslaughter and have assessed Soberanis with that charge. Here is the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Eyewitnesses tell 7NEWS that Michael Pou had just left the Copa Cabana Nightclub on Queen Street when he was followed 50 feet and allegedly shot in his back by the club's security guard. One eyewitness who wished to appear off camera told us she saw everything.
Eyewitness,
"I saw Slim haul out a gun out of his pocket, because he had on a red shirt, then he started to fire shots and then Michael Pou dropped on the ground and blood started to come through his mouth and he was choking. I told his sister how her brother was dead and then everyone ran back because first when people heard the gunshots they were running and then afterwards her sister jumped on top of him and she started to cry."
The sister the witness talks about is Michael's younger sister Natalie. Today in tears she spoke to 7NEWS but told us she can't remember what happened.
Natalie Pou, Michael's Sister
"I don't remember what happened. I really want to remember what happened. I was dancing and they told me they shot someone. I went downstairs and I saw that it was my brother. Everybody is blaming me but I don't know what happened. [Sobbing.] I will try and remember what happened. [Sobbing.] I was drunk, I don't remember what happened."
Natalie does remember that she met up with her brother earlier in front of the club.
Natalie Pou,
"I met my brother when they were going upstairs and I begged him for a beer. [Sobbing.] He told me to go buy the beer. I told him I was afraid to go out there because I was afraid that my boyfriend would beat me. He told me all of us would go and we would only drink two beers and then we would go home. I bought the beer and then I went to dance and I came back and asked him if he still hadn't left."
That was the last time Natalie and her brother spoke. The next time she saw Michael he was lying on this sidewalk about 50 feet from Copa Cabana. Police say Pou was shot after he pulled out his gun and fired inside the club. The security guard allegedly pursued him and shot Pou in his back. No gun was found on Pou's body and his sister says that is because he had none.
Natalie Pou,
"I didn't see him with any gun. They said my brother had a gun but it could only be who killed my brother had a gun. They cannot blame my brother because if he had a gun police would have found the gun because I met my brother fighting for his life. I don't want to believe that it is me who caused it over a beer. Slim and all of them up there who I go with every week, I hide behind my boyfriend's back just to go up to Copa, I considered them my friend and it is one of my own friends who killed my brother."
And Natalie says while Michael was no saint - since beating a recent murder rap - he had changed his life.
Natalie Pou,
"He had his kids and all he did was go to work and come home and play games. Sometimes we would go there and tell him how come he can't come through the alley and hail we. [Sobbing.]"
But from Saturday morning's incident - it appears no change was enough.
As mentioned in the story, police did not recover any gun from Pou but they maintain he had one and that someone probably removed it after the shooting. More interesting is that no gun has been recovered from the security guard Glenford Soberanis. Michael Pou's girlfriend of 5 years Denise Foreman is three months pregnant with the couple's second child. Michael Pou was arrested back in 1999 for a murder.
