Roberto Torres was one of the port workers who was killed last week on Valentine’s Day and police say it was the result of a beef that started on the basketball court. But today his mother visited to say that police are wrong, her son was never a basketball fan. So why then was he killed? That’s what Jacqueline Godwin found out from this grieving mother.
Teresita Chan, Mother of Roberto Torres
“And I want the whole public to know that Roberto is not a fan of this basketball and I noh know what the minor has with the boys them but I would like him to speak frankly and truly because it is a life he took away and it hurt me. I am Roberto’s mother and I am feeling this tear me apart.”
Roberto Torres may have been laid to rest yesterday but today why he and coworker Eugene Flores were murdered has still not been solved. Belize City police say there have been no breaks in the ongoing investigation since the police arrested a sixteen year old minor and charged him for the double homicide and the attempted murder of Ron Thomas.
Thomas who was shot in the upper right leg has been discharged from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital but we understand he is having a difficult time recovering as he is being haunted by the memory of what happened on Gill Street on Valentine’s Day. It is reported that Thomas was not only chased by the gunman before he was shot but he witnessed when his brother Eugene Flores was shot at least three times as he lay on the ground. Equally disturbing for Teresita Chan is the reason why police suspect her son was killed. Chan says she is having a difficult time accepting that her child was murdered over a dispute for a sport she says Roberto did not like to watch nor play.
Teresita Chan,
“Well that shocks me completely because I know my son Roberto. Roberto
is not someone who played basketball. He is not a fan of basketball and. Roberto sports is wrestling and music. I do not understand what kind of beef he would have with somebody for just a basketball to tek away his life. That just hurts me. Roberto would always come home and say well mommy so and so fool with me or so and so come do me this or thing because I know Roberto don’t have a well say for basketball. That is the part that hurts me.”
Police preliminary investigations suggest that the misunderstanding was between Roberto Torres and the teen aged killer who Chan strongly believes either did not pull the trigger or that he was the only shooter. Reports are that before Eugene “Jun Jun” Flores died he called the name of another young man who did the shooting.
Teresita Chan,
“All I am asking is if the sixteen year old knows he did not do that, how is he taking that rap, why he does not give up the young man who did it because the sixteen year old knows who did that murder, so why he does not talk and say well it’s not me.”
The police did charge four others but for the conspiracy to commit murder. They are twenty two year old Ryan ‘Cash’ Felix, twenty one year old Albert Allen, twenty year old Earl Hamilton and Police Constable Gilbert Hyde. Chan says she was surprised to hear that the PC is involved because he was always friendly to them. On Monday, Hyde appeared very confident even shaking hands with a brother on his way over to Magistrate’s Court even though the police say the evidence is strong against all of the accused.
Teresita Chan,
“The police’s brother came to my house wanted to speak to me
and he speak to one of my sons and told him that his brother, the police, was not involved in it because he knows my children Because he always hails them according to when he pass to go to work he hail them at my house. So I do not know why. I do not know what to say because if you and me are friends, how can you take away an innocent child’s life.”
In Hyde’s defense, attorney Bernard Pitts told the court that is the police who are pressuring one of the accused, Ryan Felix, to implicate his client and he further ask the court for a quick disclosure of the police evidence.
Teresita Chan,
“We no have no justice in Belize. My son, “Jun Jun” life going just like that. We no have justice, watch how many youths dead and their life just go. Mothers who hurt like me could know what the feeling is. And I cannot take it and I buried my son and I want justice and justice I want.”
For 7NEWS, Jacqueline Godwin.
Our reports say that police are aware of the claim that someone else may have killed Torres, but their investigation points clearly to the accused teenager.
