The Northern Fishermen Cooperative on North Front Street in Belize City was robbed just after 4:00 this afternoon. Two young men, one of them armed with a gun, walked into the gate – which is always open – looked around and then held up Enrique Alamina – whose job requires him to handle money on the Co-ops behalf. He told us what happened next.
Enrique Alamina, Robbery Victim
“One of them hauled a gun at me and said give me what you got. I said I don’t have nothing. He was like at that distance and I was waiting for him to get close to me so I could grab him. So I told him I don’t have nothing and then the next one, the security who was sitting beside me on the bench against the wall closed the gate. So he ran out of the gate and went outside the gate and he fired the shot at me but the shot passed me like so, only some of the powder ketch mi here so. It passed almost in line because me and the watchman were sitting down there. Pass whe you got, dah money they come for. Dah money came for, they think I had money on me and they wanted to steal, they nearly killed me because they aimed for my head. I feel a little way because I could have dead in that, unexpected.”
Apart from some gunpowder burns to his face Alamina suffered no injury. He thinks the attackers came form a nearby ally. Two years ago Alamina survived another armed assault when he was across the street from the co-op at a restaurant. That time the gun was also put to his head, but he managed to hit the shooter’s hand before he fired.
