One man is dead and the prime suspect is in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital fighting for his life tonight. It's a bizarre killing where police say it was man against man inside the Commercial Center at 2 am this morning. Keith Swift picks up the story inside the Commercial Center.
Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
At night these tables at the Riverside Diner inside the Commercial Center become beds. And in the wee hours of this morning, an argument over a spot and a cardboard on the top one of these very tables led to a violent confrontation between two men. By the time it was all over 43-year-old Victor Avilez, known as Chicken, was dead with multiple stab wounds to his back. The diner's manager, Carla Wilson found a bloody mess this morning.
Carla Wilson, Diner's Manager
"We closed at 6 and we were gone from them to this morning. When we came we found blood on the floor, that's it."
Keith Swift,
You don't know what happened?
Carla Wilson,
"I don't know."
Keith Swift,
So you closed up at 6 pm and you locked up the place?
Carla Wilson,
"Yes."
The men got into the Commercial Center by jumping the gate. Witnesses allege that chicken is the one who pulled out his knife and stabbed 42-year-old fisherman Franklin Stanford. Those same witnesses say that Stanford then took that same knife and used it on Chicken.
Police say when they arrived at the Commercial Center they found chicken's body floating in the Belize River. And this morning drops of blood marked the spot where police found Stanford, bleeding behind these gates.
Chicken's older sister Zoila Clarke got the news shortly after.
Zoila Clarke, Deceased's Sister
"At about 4:30 this morning a policeman showed up at my house and he said my brother was in an accident. So we asked him if our brother was dead because of the way how he came. He told us yes our brother had died. So we went over to the morgue to identify his body and it was my brother."
Clarke says there is no reason why her brother would be sleeping inside the Commercial Center, much less fighting over a sleeping spot on a table.
Zoila Clarke,
"He has his room on Racecourse Street so I don't know. He was working from time to time but lately, about a year or so, he stopped working. He used to go the cayes fishing because his father was a fisherman but he died too and lately he was only 'ketch and kill' so my mother just went to the states and she used to help with his rent. And at the same time when my mother couldn't help him, I helped him so I know he had a room on Racecourse Street."
But if he has a home, what was he doing here fighting for a sleeping space? It's a question that this family will have to try and find answers to even as they grieve.
Franklin Stanford has undergone two surgeries today and is tonight listed in a critical condition. A post mortem on Victor 'Chicken" Avilez is scheduled for tomorrow. He leaves behind a 16-year-old son.
