27 year old Michael Young, known as Ham was killed on Sunday in Belmopan during a failed robbery attempt. Young - who had escaped death on the city street before - could not escape the bullets fired from the pistol of a Chinese business owner.
According to police, he was participating in an armed robbery in Belmopan that turned bloody when the victim, a Chinese businessman shot one of his assailants dead.
It happened on Trinity Boulevard around 8:45 Saturday night. According to Hong Ye Li, owner of Hong Li Supermarket, he was outside his store about to close up when three men entered- one of them armed with a firearm and one with a knife. The men then demanded money from his wife - Xiau Hua Li, who was inside the store at the time. Fearing for her life she handed the robbers just under two thousand dollars in cash, 2 cell phones, and a boledo computer.
But - according to the official report - upon exiting the store, Michael Ham Young who was armed with the firearm - fired several shots towards store owner Hong Ye Li - who in returned fired back at him - hitting him in the right knee, left leg and behind the left ear. Young succumbed to his injuries. We understand there were no costumers inside the store at the time and 7news today spoke with one of the shopkeepers off camera who was there when the robbery occurred.
Shopkeeper
"Around 8:55pm I was sitting on that crate over there and the Chinese man went outside to wash the buckets by the pipe. I did not see the guys making their way into the store, I just saw someone grabbed the Chinese man from behind and when I looked outside I saw the other guy coming with a masked and had a gun in his hand."
Monica Bodden
"The one that robbed the Chinese guy, did he have a gun?"
Shopkeeper
"I did not see, as the Chinese man is tall, I only saw he grabbed the Chinese man and the other guy came in and said 'robbery, robbery'. When he came inside he turned his back to me and the baby was standing beside the shelf, I just grabbed the baby and ran. I believe he did not see me as I just grabbed the baby and ran straight into the warehouse. The Chinese man wife was cooking and I just told her someone was robbing the shop and she told me to close the warehouse door and stay inside, so I close the warehouse door and stayed inside and she went out the back. I just heard the gun shot and when I came out, all the 5 cents were scattered on the floor, that's all I saw."
Monica Bodden
"What was scattered on the floor?"
Shopkeeper
"5 cents, the money and the bullets I saw on the table."
Monica Bodden
"You heard how many shots?"
Shopkeeper
"Like 5 shots."
Monica Bodden
"At that point you thought that it may have been the owners?"
Shopkeeper
"Yes, I was just afraid to come outside; I did not want to see anyone dead. It took me about 10 minutes before I came out."
Monica Bodden
"So there were 3 guys or 2?"
Shopkeeper
"I only saw 2 guys."
Monica Bodden
"2 guys and the 2 of them were shot?"
Shopkeeper
"I could not tell, because when I came out, everything was finished. They closed the door and I stayed inside. I did not see anything I only saw the 5 cents scattered on the floor."
Monica Bodden
"At the time of the robbery, did you guys have any customers inside the store?"
Shopkeeper
"No, we did not have anyone; we were getting ready to close the store."
Michael Ham Young is known to have a long list of run-ins with the law. On October 21 of last year he was shot in the back along with a 10 year old on Antelope Extension. Young was believed to have been the target in that shooting.
