And while she grieves and continues contemplate the killing of her children, the Mendoza family is grieving the loss of a husband, a father, and a grandfather who was mercilessly shot in the head on Saturday night.
Just before 11, 59 year-old Julio Mendoza was playing dominoes with his friends on Raccoon Street Extension when a gunman ran pass and shot him in the head. He clung to life for another 6 and a half hours, but in the end, he succumbed to his injury at the KHMH.
Mendoza was a law-abiding citizen and parent, so at this time, investigators believe that it was a case of mistaken identity. Today, the Deputy Officer Commanding Precinct 2 briefed the media on Mendoza's fatal shooting:
ASP Calbert Flowers - Deputy OC, Police Precinct 2
"Friday 11th July, 2014 police visited the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Emergency where they observed Julio Mendoza, a 59 year old resident of Iguana Street Extension Belize City suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. Initial investigation reveal that Mr. Mendoza was socializing underneath a house on Raccoon Street Extension when a gunman pass the area and fired shot in their direction
causing the said injury to Mr. Mendoza. He was rushed to the hospital where he later succumb to his injuries. Police investigation into this latest homicide continues. We continue to step up our effort in order to try to stop the violence in the area. A number of persons have been picked up and interviewed. We have recorded several statements in an effort to find this person who caused this injury to Mr. Mendoza. We believe that Mr. Mendoza was just randomly shot at. He is not known to be involved in any criminal activities or any gangs. He was basically in the wrong place at the wrong time. The information is that these guys were pursuing someone else. When they couldn't catch up with those guys that they were pursuing, they turned the gun on the group that Mr. Mendoza was in, underneath the house."
And while police are trying to find out who his shooter is, Mendoza's family says that based on the person he was, there was no way he was the target. His daughter-in-law asked to appear off-camera when she spoke with us this morning:
Voice Of Kadine Mendoza - Daughter-in-Law
"We know that he was shot in the head randomly, probably at the wrong place at the wrong time. We haven't gotten a chance to see the police report, so we can't exactly say what had happened, it's just word on the street and we don't want to go by word on the street."
Daniel Ortiz
"Tell us what was he doing? What the last time you spoke to him like?"
Voice Of Kadine Mendoza - Daughter-in-Law
"I spoke to him actually on Friday evening. I was at the work site with them, we were joking around; he is always joking around and I was messing around with him and then I saw him up until actually after 7 that night and then I guess he went because he was playing dominoes when it happened, it was his usual spot, he was there almost every night. Actually we don't think that he was the target at all. We don't want to go by hearsay or by word of mouth. We do believe that he was the intended target. He was very close to our kids. My husband was with him on a daily basis because they work together. I saw him I would say at least 4-5 times a week and he cared a lot for his grandchildren, so he was almost always here. Our eldest child, she has already broken down over the passing of her grandfather and of course the family is shaken and everybody is very hurt by this because this is the last thing expected. He is a 59 year old man, if he is to die, he is to die from old age or from an illness, not from a gunshot wound."
Julio Mendoza celebrated his 59th birthday last month. He is the father of 4 children and the grandfather of 15 grandchildren.
