Hours before Saturday night's murder in the city, another murder had occurred out west in the Village of Billy White at El Rey Bar. This shooting resulted in the death of a patron and injured one of the bar owners. Jomarie Lanza followed this story.
What seemed like just another Saturday night of popping open beer bottles and serving customers for the Riveras, the owners of El Rey Bar in Billy White village, quickly turned into a public execution of villager Eric Estrada. He was shot multiple times while purchasing another round of beer at the bar counter. It happened to be the exact moment Rafael Rivera, co-owner, was reaching down into a freezer for another beer, when 4 bullets whizzed past his head and into the wall behind him. A simple bartending task had changed his fate and ultimately saved his life that moment.
Rafael Rivera, Shooting Victim
"I was coming from fishing. I came in the house and came into the bar and I saw my mom who was coming in to get some change for some of the clients. Then I helped her to serve the beer when the guy was shot. I was to serve the beer and I felt the shot nuh."
Reporter-
"It's to your leg that you got shot?"
Rafael Rivera, Shooting Victim
"Yes only one shot. He was laid out on the grown he was already shot you know he got like eleven shots."
Rivera sustained a single bullet graze to his leg while his acquaintance, the 33 year old Estrada sustained a total of 11 gunshot wounds to his body.
Reporter
"You knew Eric?"
Rafael Rivera, Shooting Victim
"Yes I knew him for ten years thirteen years something like that."
Jo-
"Is this the first time something like this has happened here?"
Rafael Rivera, Shooting Victim
"In front of me yes first time."
Reporter-
"How did Eric get to the hospital do you know?"
Rafael Rivera, Shooting Victim
"I took him to the hospital myself me I took him."
Reporter-
"He died while receiving treatment or?"
Rafael Rivera, Shooting Victim
"Yeah he was in the process to be attended to when he just died."
Jo-
"So you yourself were bleeding and you were also?"
Rafael Rivera, Shooting Victim
"Yes I still took him, I asked the police if I can take him and he said yes go ahead take him to the hospital so we went to the hospital I took him."
But who and why would anyone want Estrada dead? According to the grieving family they have been receiving threats from the perpetrator ever since he took up residence in the village.
Santos Chacon, Brother of Deceased
"The point is that when he came to this village everything was peaceful here. We never heard or seen police around here because this is a peaceful village. We never had any murders, no nothing, no problems. But when he came he started to target us like he didn't like us. Like I even have a next neighbor here and we were targeted when he was around, always trying to push problems on us, always trying to find something because he even locked us down and he pushed a lot of trouble on us. That is not something that something fair in this life to do that with we human beings no."
Estrada's younger brother claims that the night Eric was killed, the shooter continued to roam the village freely after the incident, pistol still in hand searching for his second kill, which would have been Estrada's other brother but he managed to get away.
Santos Chacon, Brother of Deceased
"So when I heard those gunshots I woke up and I came out and I started to listen to see what I could hear. And when my brother came my next second brother he came here and he told me that this man shot my brother at the bar and he was there too cause when he saw my next brother he even run after him and attempted to kill him too but my brother he jumped two fences and he gone so the man can't catch him and he then came walking alone from that road with the gun in his hand in the view of all the neighbors he walked down to his house. Then from there some other day he was walking to the back and some neighbors at the end of the village say he just arrived to a certain point where he disappeared from there. And it took more than half an hour that the incident happened and we didn't get any police around. And we called the police instant when that happened and we didn't get no assistance from police."
Chacon says that police took a long time to respond to the shooting, and after hours of waiting he claims that no police mobiles or patrols were seen combing the area for the shooter.
Santos Chacon, Brother of Deceased
"What they did is not the right thing because they didn't go and try to find the person they just came and stopped there and stayed there the whole time. And when I went and asked if they were searching for the man they said that they are waiting for a special unit from Belmopan but it passed about one or two hours and nothing showed up. Nobody searched for that man, we didn't see nothing that they are searching for that man here."
Estrada's killer still remains at large. He leaves behind one daughter.
