At yesterday's police press briefing, the cops presented a pretty simple case when explaining the ghastly murder of 5 men at sea.
23 year-old Travis Cooke, 49 year-old Ernest Willis, 40 year-old Winston Santos, 21 year-old Jemar Martinez, and 19 year-old Alysson Jones, were all discovered between Thursday night and Saturday afternoon. All 5 men were had been shot to the head. Their families and law enforcement teams found them one by one in the areas around Swallow Caye and Mapp Caye.
The cops said that the five had allegedly come up on a quantity of cocaine - which made them targets. And, proof of this, the cops suggested, could be seen on 19 year old Jemar Martinez's facebook page where he was profiling with a large amount of cash and a firearm - the hallmarks of the drug trade.
But while police said that was a recent posting - turns out it was a post made 4 years ago - that's right, when Martinez was only 15. His family says the post was childish stupidity and had nothing to do with his death or the drug trade. They say that for police to suggest a connection is untrue, unfair and hurtful.
They also stress that the men were legitimately fishing for lobster, and had all recently gone through the trouble and cost of getting fishing licenses. The Fisheries Department had also visited them at the Caye to tell them in what areas around Mapp Caye they could fish.
