For residents of Faber's Road, the quiet of Sunday afternoon was shattered when gunshots resounded across the neighborhood. Porfilio August was going to give his mother a Sunday afternoon hail, but his visit was cut tragically short when he was killed at the corner of Faber's Road and Woodpecker Street. 7NEWS was on the scene of the Sunday slaughter.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
At four in the afternoon the body of 26 year old Porfilio August lay motionless on Faber's Road. As a crowd gathered to view the spectacle of a public killing, police investigators and forensic personnel examined the body and the area for clues. Shocked and grieving family members could hardly be consoled while his friend just sat on the street, a mere foot from the body. For family members, the killing is unbelievable. One of his cousins today spoke to us on the condition of anonymity.
Cousin of Victim,
"He was going to his mother's house to eat. On Sunday that is what he does, his mom lives on Faber's Road and that is where he goes to eat. He was going to eat at his mom's house. From just rumors and stuff like that I heard that they killed my cousin due to…people are saying it is because they wanted to steal his bicycle, people are saying it is due to rivalry but what rivalry, he is not a gang person or any thing like that. I don't know my cousin as being in any gang, I don't know him as knowing to use a gun. Otherwise from talking and acting like he is crazy and thing like that, he is not a bad person. I can't say he is good and I can't say that he is bad but what I can say is that the person I know and who I grew up with, from birth to now, he is a real nice person. Me and him been through a lot of things but that is my cousin. They took my cousin life and I just hope that if somebody takes back their life, they could understand and they could feel and their parents could feel what we are feeling right now because we really the feel. First time in my life something like this ever happened to us, we never have gun shooting. We never had anything like that so it really hurts the family. It's the first time in our family this family it happens and they don't know, they shorted us of one person and I just hope they don't short us of anymore. I don't know what he could have had for them. If they wanted the bicycle they could have took it and go. The way how I heard is that he was begging, he was telling them it wasn't him they wanted, but as they say dead men carry no tale so they finished kill him."
Killed him brutally. Police found gunshot wounds to his hand, his midsections, his chest and his back. He was riding on Faber's Road and at the junction with Woodpecker Street, a man of Creole descent simply opened fire. For August's family, the killing has brought the crime situation into focus. Today, they are appealing for the violence to stop.
Cousin of Victim,
"All the youths in Belize need to stop this, this is going too far. Everyday somebody is dying, every every day somebody is dying. This is too much and we need to stop this."
But even as she appeals for the killing to stop she also asks for one more thing.
Cousin of Victim,
"I want to see justice served you know. If it would be left up to me, I would…you know because this really hurts, I don't even know how to feel. I don't know how to feel at all but what they don't pay down here for they will pay up there for and I believe in God and God will deal with them. But I just want the police, they say they already have someone detained, I don't want to hear seven years. They need to do something, they need to set example out here. With one man they need to either start to hang or something; bring back execution style, bring back something, and set the example because this is too much. Youths on the streets just are taking each other's lives too much."
Too much to see a relative lying on the ground, mercilessly killed in broad daylight.
Police are looking for one suspect described as being of Creole descent with short hair. At the time of the shooting he was wearing a pants and a white t shirt.
