For the second time in 2 months, the parent of very young children was killed in cold blood while his children looked on helpless and traumatized.
The first incident was, of course, the murder of Jon and David "Mikey" Ramnarace in Belmopan. Vivian Ramnarace too would later die of the injuries she sustained in that New Year's Eve home invasion.
And last night, the scene moved to Belize City, where the victim was 38-year-old Brian Perez, a father of five and a BEL employee who was shot in the head during a home invasion.
It's an unspeakable tragedy, not just for Brian's children but also for his wife, siblings, and parents who were also targeted. And, this morning just after she got the news of her son's death, I spoke to Brian's mom Leticia Magana - who fought the gunmen for her son's life. Here's her gripping first hand account of the nightmare scenario that played out in her son's home.
Thursday, March 2nd, 2023 is a day that Leticia Magana will never be able to forget. She came to Belize City for an event at her granddaughter's school. But what had, up until then been a wonderful day was about to take a turn for the unthinkably violent.
Leticia Magana, Mother of the Deceased
"We were going inside his home when this young man stood in front of me. And I said what is it? What do you want? And like, he did, like to stop me from talking or screaming or something and then I pushed his hand away and I started screaming for my son."
"Brian was outside he was parking the car and so I, um, I screamed for him to help me right and then the guy hit me with a metal pipe, on my head. And, I just fell something pouring but I didn't even feel the hit right, the impact, I just felt something flowing from me and I ran inside because he ran inside also and my daughter-in-law, my daughter and the baby four months old, and the four-year-old little girl, they were inside and, as I went inside to try to stop him. My daughter came running to me, Alyssa, and he lifted up the thing to hit my daughter, and I put up my hand to try to stop him, and he still hit her and she fell on the sofa."
Already battered and bewildered by the violence that was playing out in front of her Leticia refused to cower, and while the desperate mother begged these assailants for mercy, she and her family fought back.
Leticia Magana, Mother of the Deceased
"When I turned around my son was attacking the guy, he, they was fighting, my son ran in and he was fighting with the guy. He was trying to protect his family. So, um, but when I turned around to my right I saw this other guy coming in with a gun. So, I'm like what? Why are you doing this? What are you doing? Please don't do this, please don't do this because I'm like I don't know if he's going to kill all of us or what he's gonna do. So, I said please don't do this and I pushed him and he went. I literally pushed him outside and I tried closing the door and I couldn't, I couldn't he just pushed it back in and he aimed at my son. My son was fighting with the guy and he shot my son in the head. Instantly my son fell."
Brian was rushed to the hospital, where all indications were that he was deteriorating fast. And by this morning the 38-year-old had passed away.
His landlord and neighbour who was present at the time of the incident, is, much like the family, in complete shock.
Voice Of: Landlord
"I feel very unsafe. I really don't know what to do I believe we have to install cameras so that we could see something, unfortunately, we don't have cameras but I have a fenced yard and that didn't help. That really didn't help."
"Seems like it was a home invasion and when I went there indeed they were covered with blood and they got hurt and the gentleman was on the floor face down and he seemed to be unconscious."
"I am shocked about the whole incident because we have lived here for all my life and we have never ever had an incident like this. I have heard about other incidents on the news but we have never had something like this."
But when violence finally did come knocking it robbed the Perez family of their breadwinner.
Leticia Magana, Mother of the Deceased
"Brian was a very hardworking person, he works at, he worked at BEL for so many years since he was 20 years old. He has 5 children, he loved his children…and he was fighting to do something for his children. I was speaking to him last night just before we went home and he said mama I have big plans. Tuesday I am going in because I am going to buy a land to make a home for my family."
"He says I have to do this step Mama and I am going to do it now. I was so happy for him, you know, because I always want my children to you know have their place their home. He's been working so hard since the age of 20 years."
"He was loved by so many people, he, so many people treated him good and he was not a person who would fight with people, you know, like have problems with people. I don't know what happened, I don't know this was such a shock to us, we never expected it."
