Tonight's headline has a storyline so sinister and sanguinary it is almost cinematic - but this is no movie; this is real life. In San Pedro on Saturday, four brothers were ambushed at sea while diving for conch, the eldest and youngest pursued by the attacker's boat, forcing them to leave the middle brothers to fend for themselves in open water.
Separated, they fought for their lives, but 25-year-old Jerry Espat could do nothing as gunshots punctured his body, leaving him dead in the water.
The other three lived to tell the story - one that will forever haunt them as fishermen now afraid of the deadly seas.
But what could have triggered such a mercenary and ruthless attack? Well, they think it's a part of the gang war - a battle they have tried their best to stay out of as they watched many other relatives die. And now, the deaths have reached their front door.
Courtney Menzies went to the island today to speak with the family today and has this story.
On Saturday, four brothers went out to sea, and only three returned, two injured.
And the blood staining the inside of "Noah Ark" is a grim reminder of what happened - the Espat brothers went diving for conch when their boat came under fire.
They were ambushed near Cayo Cangrejo, and 25-year-old Jerry Espat was murdered while still wearing his diving fins and mask. His father said his three other sons barely made it out alive, and the eldest, Luis Enrique Santoya, was forced to leave his two little brothers behind.
Anthony Espat, Father of Deceased
"He didn't have any break to pick up those guys in the water, a boat is coming, the red boat is coming and shooting those guys, buss my child's foot, he have to lean down and drive the boat, lean down. These guys was escaping so many gunshots that these guys are shooting, coming with the boat, and shooting and shooting to kill him, they couldn't catch them. They run like five miles away from here, to the gas station here at the back they left those guys, they left my kids, they stop shoot them."
Santoya escaped with a gunshot wound to the leg while the youngest brother, Ricardo Espat was uninjured. But while the red boat was chasing those two, the green boat caught Jerry and Kirian Espat out in the water.
Kirian lived to tell the tale - the brutal murder of his brother and the fight he put up to save his own life.
Kirian Espat, Brother of Deceased
"I was out there with my little brother and my two other brothers, four of us were out there, all brothers, two boats ambush we, and they tried to kill us, they shoot up at my brother and they shoot up the boat and only me and my little brother Jerry Espat stay in the water. They come out from the bush and a next boat rush my little brother and shot him right in front of me in his back. He get like six shots. I just hear the man come and bam bam bam bam bam. Then the next boat that's [OMIT NAME] boat, it came into us and he his boat come into me and buss like five gunshot at me. Five gunshot and I swim down for my life and those boys, the gun end up jamming on them and they pick up a shovel, a long machete, and they knock me in my head, and I still didn't give up on my life, I hide underneath the bow off the boat, I was hiding, and I was breathing, and I was coming up, and I was breathing. The guy who was driving [OMIT NAME] run into me. Because I know [OMIT NAME], I know those boys. I grew up with those boy at San Juan, and the boy run me with the engine, it cut my diving pants, my whole diving pants get cut up with the propellor. They almost kill me, they wanted to kill me, they battle with me twenty minutes and can't and they get frighten and they off and gone and left my little brother floating up right there, dead."
And the only reason Kirian could think of for the attack was that his cousins are involved in a gang war on the island. But even though he said he's not a part of that, the men were coming to bury them.
Kirian Espat, Brother of Deceased
"I'm not into trouble, I have two small babies and a next one on the way. I have one that's 6 and one that's 4, already going to school, and those boys ambush we, and try chance us off our life, they killed my little brother in front of me, bawling for help. And they wanted to take us back behind Bomba and chop us up because it's right around Cangrejo it happen, they wanted to chop us up, I see they have a pick to dig hole in his boat, a long big pick, and two shovel and a long black machete, four of them were in the boat."
And the sound of his little brother crying out for help and the memory of narrowly dodging bullets remains with Kirian, keeping him awake at night. And his father is crushed, saying that the men went there for a 'masacre.' And he had a message for those at the top.
Anthony Espat, Father of Deceased "I wanna say something to our country, I feel like it's too much, I feel like we need to ask to please our minister to do something about this, to change the system, you cannot have a killer do one, twice, and again and again, how many times he have to do this to give him life in prison?"
"In my knowledge, I think we shouldn't got no kind of relation, the government, with the gang members, you are petting them up and this is not supposed to happen, we are never going to stop this killing if they don't change the rules."
"I see it everyday in the news, how they're killing the people, the young guys. I prefer they killed me and not kill my baby, because my baby hasn't lived anything yet."
Jerry Espat had a common-law wife and a 1-year-old daughter.
Many from the Espat family have died in violent incidents on the island. Rolando Espat Sr, who is this victim's uncle, has lost four sons: Charlie, who was found in a shallow grave in Orange Walk with his cousin, Daniel Alamilla; Byron Espat, who was stabbed to death inside a club; Rolando Espat Jr, who was fatally shot close to his home; and little Daniel Espat, a 2-year-old killed while sleeping. Rolando Sr's brother-in-law, Edwardo Gutierrez was also a victim of this gang war, and he was a victim in a triple homicide.
