Yesterday police charged 19 year old Richard Flores with 13 counts of attempted murder and 1 count of possession of unlicensed ammunition. He is the man who police say threw the grenade into a crowd in front of the KHMH on carnival day. Flores has no criminal record but investigators say he is their man and they claim to have strong evidence against him. But no evidence can convince his mother Gaylia Flashy that her son is guilty because she claims to have been home with him at the time he allegedly threw the grenade. She declined to talk to us yesterday but last night she came to our studio to tell her family’s side of the story. Keith Swift has it.
Gaylia Flashy, Mother of Richard Flores
“Belizeans, friends all, as how unu see me over the years now who I am, who the child belongs to. I am the mother of Richard Flores.”
This is her son Richard Flores. He is the 19 year old who police say lobbed an attack grenade into a crowd on carnival day. His mother Gaylia Flashy says he isn’t the monster police have made him out to be.
Gaylia Flashy,
“I am a single mother trying to make a living with my kids to make them be somebody in life and now this incident comes up. The policemen didn’t do their work and they are trying to get somebody to accuse about this incident. What they have done to my son is wrong, fully wrong and people out there who see this news could see and know that it is not true that my son is the one
that did this incident. It is showing like he is the monster and my son has very good training at home, he has home training. I didn’t raise my son in a violent home, he was raised in a respectable home.”
Keith Swift,
What was going through your mind in court as the Magistrate was reading off this long list of charges?
Gaylia Flashy,
“I was just so, I said boy, my son is being accused of all this, could it be that way? This is wrong. What did I have in my home? My son, I don’t see him as somebody like that. All I could do was shake my head and say it is not my son.”
And Flashy is so sure because she says Richard was at home with her watching television around the time when the grenade was thrown.
Longene Flores, Sister of Richard Flores
“It is just ridiculous that he is taking my little brother and put him out there for everybody to think he is the person in charge of this grenade and so forth. And next thing I brother he is more into basketball, softball, and I just feel bad that all of this has happened.”
Keith Swift,
How are you so sure your son didn’t do this?
Gaylia Flashy,
“Because at that time when the carnival was taking place, my son was at home. We all sit in the parlour and we watched the carnival taking place on the street of Belize. We didn’t go nowhere because we are in sorrows up to today’s day for the losses of my husband and also my son so we don’t go anywhere at enjoyment time.”
That other son is Hubert Flashy who was killed three years ago in December of 2005 in San Pedro.
Gaylia Flashy,
“Commissioner please I ask you to look deep down into this situation. Also the Ministers them out there, our Prime Minister look in the matter and look at my side because I know my son is innocent. He is innocent and I don’t want the same thing they do with my first son that died three years ago. They want to take another one of my sons and so I am just begging the public out there to cooperate with me and look into this situation and don’t think it is a monster I have. I don’t have a monster, they are accusing my son innocently.”
Gaylia Flashy and her daughter Longene Flores and her 17 year old son spent the weekend in police detention for possession of controlled drugs for the weed found when police searched their home on Saturday. They were released on bail. Flores’ attorney Dickie Bradley is expected to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.
