Last night we told you about the killing of Wilhelm Braun, the first ever murder in the Corozal Free Zone. And while generally the public is somewhat numb to cold blooded killings, for something of that magnitude to happen in the Free Zone, which is basically a shopping village where no one lives or sleeps, it is outlandish and extreme. Jacqueline Godwin went to the zone today to find out more.
Raul Rosado, CEO - Corozal Free Zone
"We will not allow this to interfere on our everyday activities because we consider it an isolated case. The police have everything in their hands and we are going to leave the proper authorities to do their proper investigations.”
The police are trying to find the persons who shot and killed forty one year old Mennonite Belizean contractor Wilhelm Braun at the SP 2000 construction site. He had been working inside the Corozal Free Zone for close to six months.
Supt. Miguel Guzman, Commander - Corozal Police Station
“We do patrols in the mornings and in the evenings around that time and the police was in the area when they got information of robbery in progress, that shots were fired and a robbery was in progress. Police immediately responded.”
Around three thirty on Wednesday evening, Braun was inside his office when a truck arrived with a load of cement blocks. He went to the back of the building to receive the delivery. But that’s where two armed Hispanic men were waiting for him.
Supt. Miguel Guzman,
“The security was immediately activated at the Free Zone. We know exactly what to do so initially what we did was to lock off the gate onto the bridge, we temporarily closed off the next exit until we could have gotten enough security there to do searches on vehicles and suspects. We are looking at two suspects from eyewitnesses. From what eyewitnesses described we are looking for two suspects yes.”
At the crime scene police recovered one live nine milimeter round and ten expended shells.
Supt. Miguel Guzman,
“He was shot in the chest region area. He had about one or two shots in the legs and three shots in the back of the head. From what the witnesses again reported, one person was armed with a handgun, the next person was armed
with what appeared to be a machine gun. The one with the handgun is the one who fired first. When the person fell to the ground, the deceased fell to the ground, the other person opened fire with the submachine gun. It give a rapid fire but there was no explosion, no explosion from any of the weapon.
It could take two to three days to plan a crime of that nature. It doesn’t need a long time. Yes that happened in the heart of the commercial business. It happened between two buildings that are currently under construction.”
Raul Rosado,
“We can say that we have a much better security system than we have before.”
And that is why authorities are also trying to determine how a crime as serious and calculated as this one could have happened without the killers being detected. They’re also trying to figure out at what point the gunmen armed themselves. Police do have an idea of how they got away.
Supt. Miguel Guzman,
“I don’t know if they entered the compound heavily armed. I don’t know how they accessed the weapon, we don’t have that information. But I can tell you from the witnesses, that the people who were identified as the perpetrators, the general description of these persons is that they were neatly dressed, they were well shaved, nice hair cut. When they saw the people they were coming out of the same downstairs portion of the building that is under construction. That is when the people saw the firearm. How these people got there, how they got these firearms there, is still unknown. All things are possible and I don’t want to speculate at this point and time. But they went directly to where the deceased was, he was on the second floor doing construction work. They waited apparently until he came down and then they walked up to him and fired at him. Basically that is what happened. Now the witnesses are also saying that initially, because of the way how these people were dressed, it
may appear that they were dressed like police officers. So they thought that they were police officers and these people had gone there to do an arrest. They didn’t think it was a case of murder that these people were about to commit.
From the indications of the witnesses, it is that they ran into a bushy lot. Initially they started walking, they crossed the street, and once they got into the bush they started running in the bushes, high bushes about three to four feet in height, high grass, and all the people were able to see was the bush just moving from side to side towards to the fence. The fence is adjacent to the river which has the border, Belize-Mexican border. So it is just a matter to get over the fence and basically you are at the river.
We are currently still in the initial phase where we are making some progress with the witnesses and we are still trying to ascertain the identity of the witnesses, well we have the witnesses but there may be other witnesses who may have seen the perpetrators prior to the incident and we are canvassing the area to see if we can get these witnesses.”
The police are also working closely with their Mexican counterparts because it is believed the men may have come from across the border.
Supt. Miguel Guzman,
“We have had very good cooperation from the Mexican authorities. Like what I explained to them yesterday that crime doesn’t know any borders, its only we as law enforcement officers that have to follow protocol and procedures when it comes to dealing matters of territorial integrity. Immediately after the shooting incident occurred, we informed the Mexican authorities and they immediately established a vehicle checkpoint at their side of the border, they deployed foot patrols along the riverside, and many media houses called me and wanted to confirm if in fact the Mexicans had closed down their borders because of the incident. But no, what happened is that because of the checkpoint, you know it created a bottleneck. It created a long line of vehicles trying to get into Chetumal or across the border. But the border was not closed, vehicles were going through just similarly to what we were doing at Free Zone; vehicle by vehicle checking the vehicles. So yes we had cooperation with them. As a matter of fact, they are still cooperating. We have been exchanging information.”
Police are also investigating a possible drug-angle. The officer in charge of Corozal Police Station Superintendent Miguel Guzman says they do know that the motive was not robbery.
Supt. Miguel Guzman,
“It seems that the people just went after one target. It was not a random shooting. We have ruled out the possibility of robbery. The person was found with all his personal effects. There was no indication from the witnesses that he was ever searched, as a matter of fact shots were only fired, he fell to the ground, they continued firing shots even as they retreated, and went towards the bush area. So we can say to some degree that it was planned.
We are following every possible lead. Normally in an investigation we approach it with an open mind, we look of course at drug deal went sour or some kind of misunderstanding that people may have in the past. We look at all possible leads so we don’t just narrow it down to a specific type of investigation.”
The police have also been speaking to the murder victim’s family.
Supt. Miguel Guzman,
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say they don’t know. They may know as well as they may not but we are still in the process of that investigation to ascertain whether they in fact know anything about it. Yes we have been getting some cooperation from the common-law wife and as a matter of fact she was here this morning. She has already given us a statement and we are looking at other avenues and maybe trying to cover every loophole to ensure that we do a good investigation into this incident.”
Immediately after the shooting all access into the Corozal Free Zone was temporarily closed.
Raul Rosado,
“Well it lasted for as long as long as we had all the visitors and employers and investors out of the Free Zone, in a matter of hours.”
The police strongly believe that the murder was an isolated incident however plans are underway to increase security in the area.
Supt. Miguel Guzman,
“We have like a porous border point where anybody can cross very easily at any point, they don’t have to cross at the approved point of entry but any part along the river side and there is no way we can detect it. So probably one of the things we are looking at is to set up like a small border patrol along the fence and step up a little bit more on our security system. That is in the event any incident would occur of this magnitude that we could readily activate and close off the border from our side and with the cooperation of the Mexicans, because if it happens here we would be in a position to have an advantage to close our border first rather than wait for the Mexican authorities, for them to activate or get the information to them to activate their resources. So we would be at a better advantage when the incident occurs here. When the incident occurs in Chetumal, similar procedures can be applied that they activate and then we activate eventually but we have to work in conjunction with both authorities.”
Raul Rosado,
“We presently working close with the authorities. Right now we have police presence within the border lines in the Free Zone and we will definitely have more consideration after this incident has occurred.”
And because the first murder inside the Corozal Free Zone is believed to be an isolated event CFZ management says there is no need for concern.
Raul Rosado,
“I wouldn’t think so. It is very unfortunate that incident happened within the Free Zone perimeter but I don’t think there is a concern. We try to treat this as an isolated case.”
Jacqueline Godwin reporting for 7NEWS.
One Mexican man from Chetumal had been detained but he has been released. Presently no one is detained. Braun lives in Ranchito and his family declined comment.
