Tonight, 22 prison escapees remain on the loose, after two were recaptured today. They are Guatemalan Juan Ramirez Garcia who was captured at the Lord's Bank Junction and Kevin Buller, who was captured this afternoon. They have both been taken back to the Central Prison.
They join 3 others who were recaptured yesterday:
Mark Pelayo, Christoper Bradley, and George Bednarik. They have all been charged for escape from prison.
And, as we reported, another escapee, Akeem Tillett was killed yesterday - more on that later.
So that leaves 22 at large, desperate, dangerous and armed criminals - still believed to be within the Belize District, roaming the countryside, likely desperate for food and water. Again, they are considered to be armed and dangerous - and anyone seeing them or anything suspicious is asked to call 922 to share anonymous information.
And Police say there was surely something suspicious happening at the prison which allowed this breakout - which is the largest in Belize's history.
Was it an inside job? That's what many have been asking. After all, how could 28 men escape at 1:00 pm, supposedly hold three guards hostage until 6:00 pm, set 28 men free, and no one else in the prison knew.
Well, information coming from within the prison population says that one of the escapees, Carlos Montejo, set up the breakout along with a number of the prison guards - the same guards who supply them with drugs, the prisoner claims.
Police are looking at that information very closely - but the priority right now is to find the 22 who are still at large.
Today, Charisse Halsall went to the orange orchard off the Coastal Highway where one prisoner was killed and another captured. Here's here story:
Tonight, 23 Prison escapees are still roaming the countryside.
That's after one of them, Akeem Tillett, a man charged with burglarizing the YMCA among other convictions, was killed yesterday in an exchange of gunfire with the police.
Cherisse Halsall, reporter
I'm standing on a Feeder road off the Coastal. This area called "the orchard" is where a BDF Lance Corporal was shot, and a policeman grazed. Gunfire came out of the bushes/greenery while they sat in a mobile. They fired back, and when the smoke cleared escapee Akeem Tillett was dead and beside him police found the M4 Carbine assault rifle that had been stolen from the prison.
4 of Tillet's comrades either surrendered or were captured by police. Leroy Young was working near the orchard when the bullets started to fly.
Leroy Young, Works near the orchard
"We weren't thinking that they would come here. We saw the pickups going down the road there and after that, we heard gunshots, yes. It was after the gunshots they started to shoot down there that we realized the prisoners were down there. When they came out they just came through the gate and they went."
Cherisse Halsall:
"So you didn't see them with anybody in custody?"
Leroy Young, Works near the orchard
"No, no, no because we are way here so we couldn't see inside the vehicle."
Police continue to intensely search the area of the Belize District between mile 17-31 where they know that the convicts have robbed and terrorised at least one person.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We still believe that the area between mile 17 and mile 31 on the George Price Highway right in that vicinity of Democracia on the Coastal road, the Sibun River area and so we're concentrating our search there. A family had reported that about 20 of them had arrived at their home last night and that they took their food supplies and left. So we are sure that they are in that area and we hope that before the end of the day we should be able to have the majority of them in custody."
Authorities still hope that these men who, by now are desperate for food and shelter will turn themselves in and that their families, and the wider public will refrain from harboring known fugitives.
We note that while an M4 Carbine was recovered - apparently is not the only weapon the escapees have. 7News has been reliably informed that the BDF soldier who was injured in that shootout, Lance Corporal Flowers was hit by shotgun pellets - which are lodged in his leg and chest. That likely means the escapees also have a shotgun - which has not been reported stolen at this time. Flowers is recovering from his injuries which are not not life threatening.
Police constable Whakyem Martinez was also grazed to the waist in the exchange.
