Police recovered 16 expended shells from inside the Burrell Boom home of diplomat Sarkis Abou-Nehra, 13 of those were fired by attackers and three were fired by Abou-Nehra himself. As we've reported, between 1:00 and 2:00 on Tuesday morning, the 67 year old awoke to a loud commotion outside his bedroom door. When he opened the door, he saw a pair of intruders and opened fire. There was an exchange of gunfire, and it ended with Abou-Nehra getting shot to the hand, and his attackers running off unscathed. Well police say they have caught the men responsible and today took them to court. The office in charge of the Crimes Investigation Branch, Chester Williams told us how his officers cracked the case.
ASP Chester Williams,
"The investigation unfolded yesterday evening after we located Giovanni Luriano who is from the St. Martin's Deporess area of Belize city. His vehicle, which is a white Toyota Camry, which we also believed was used in the commission of this crime was also brought in yesterday. During that process we found some evidence which leads us to believe that he was involved in the home invasion of Mr. Abou-Nehra. Further investigations continued which later on led to additional
evidence implicating the three other persons, namely Jack Vernon, Anniver Palacio, and Kenrick Reneau."
Jules Vasquez,
These are some of the most notorious names in the crime records in Belize. How is that you have been unable to pin any crime on them and they are still in circulation, so to speak.
ASP Chester Williams,
"It is not that we have been unable to pin crimes on them, they have cases before the court and are awaiting trial but for some reason or the other, every time they go to court they get remanded for a while and then they come out on bail. They get bail and they go back into the same type of crime that they were on bail."
Jules Vasquez,
Any idea at this time of the motive for that home invasion?
ASP Chester Williams,
"From our investigation it is out rightly revealing that the motive for this crime was robbery. These guys, as you aware of, are very experienced thieves and they found a way to get into the residence of Mr. Abou-Nehra easily and went to his room door where he was and that was where the whole commotion started."
Today in court, Giovanni Lauriano, Anniver Palacio, and Kenrick Reneau were charged for two counts of attempted murder, 1 count of grievous harm, 1 count of aggravated burglary, one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary and 1 count of use of deadly means of harm. Williams says the community's contribution was key to cracking open the case.
