A German national was the victim of a vicious assault on Friday night in Cayo. Around 11 pm, Peter Albert Steins, the owner of Paradise Estate Resort – drove up to the gate of his residence and saw something blocking his driveway. Steins got out of his Suzuki SUV to remove it and that is when a gunman emerged from the bushes and opened fire. Steins ran back into his vehicle but was still hit in his left upper back. Police counted 7 bullet holes on the left hand side of his Suzuki SUV.
But an injured Steins was still strong enough to drive half a mile to his door where a worker took him to the La Loma Luz Hospital. He was later transferred to the San Ignacio Hospital and then to the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan. A critically injured Steins was then taken to the Belize Healthcare Partners Hospital where he underwent a 7 hour surgery performed by three doctors on Saturday. They managed to remove the single 9 millimetre shell that had just narrowly missed his heart.
He remained at the Healthcare Partners Hospital until just before midnight last night when he was taken by air ambulance to a hospital in Houston Texas. Cayo police were unable to talk to Steins before he was flown out and so tonight there are more questions than answers. Police don’t know if the motive was robbery but nothing appeared to have been stolen. No one has been arrested. Paradise estate is what was formerly Casa Maya which is located about two miles outside of San Ignacio.
Steins was in the news last month after twenty eight thousand dollars worth of construction items were stolen from his home – allegedly by Lee Paddan – a maintenance worker who Steins had left in charge of his house. Cayo police haven’t established a connection. When steins reported the incident to police – Paddan had been deported to the United States to face charges for sexual offences.
