There were a number of shootings in Belize City over the weekend - two of which were fatal. The first murder occurred just before 5 on Friday evening and left residents of the George Street area in shock. 43-year-old Elwin Lewis was once a notorious gang figure, but had since changed his life. And though he was well known as a community worker, under the LIU program, that could not save him from the target that was on his back. Courtney Menzies has this story.
43-year-old Elwin Lewis was a known gang figure, a prominent member of the George Street Gang. But Lewis had turned his life around, and was focused on his children and his farm - which he managed to get under the LIU program.
But even though he was no longer a combatant, that didn't stop a gunman from waiting him out and killing him during his weekly routine.
It happened on Friday evening while Lewis was riding his motorcycle on Antelope Street. The driver of another motorcycle, headed in the opposite direction, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
So far the police say there is no clear motive, but they are looking at a number of suspects.
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"No one has been arrested and charged for this crime, several persons are in custody and the investigation continues."
Courtney Menzies:
"Do police believe that Mr Lewis was ambushed in a way because we understand that he goes to this area every two weeks to cash these LIU cheques?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Yes that is the information we have, he was there doing some transactions and when he was heading back, he was targeted while he was on his motorcycle."
Courtney Menzies:
"Was the money or the cheques stolen from him?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Nothing was stolen as far as we know."
Courtney Menzies:
"Mr Lewis, we know that he's been in the gang world many years ago but it seems he turned over a new leaf and be on the narrow path, can the police verify that he has been able to stay out of trouble?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Yes it has been a while that we have not dealt with him for any crime so yes he was not a person that we had arrested recently for any crime."
Courtney Menzies:
"So likely it was just his past catching up to him?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Probably that is it yes."
Reporter:
"It is also a probability that he was targeted because he was a reformed gang member?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"We have not ascertained a clear motive, all we know is that he was in that area and was targeted. We have several measures that are in place to prevent any sort of retaliation because yes he's from that particular area."
And the LIU has also been on the ground. According to the chairlady, Dominique Noralez, just a day or two before the murder, they had an internal mediation session, and were able to quickly jump into action after Lewis was killed.
She also added that she'd just seen him earlier that day.
Dominique Noralez, Chairlady, LIU
"I'm still processing the news. In fact on Friday, it was the payday for our program and I was, which is quite an anomaly, I was downstairs when we were handing out our cheques and Bobo as we called him, he signed his cheques right in front of me and we usually have our small talks, we usually check in, but he just said hi and I couldn't have anticipated that would be the last time I would see him because he was one of those community persons who I interact with a lot because we share similar personalities and I used to hang out a lot underneath his house and we use to talk about everything so for me, this one has been quite significant, as was the other ones, Troy Hyde, Eric Caceres, Benito and all of these have been very difficult but his one came as such a shock because I literally saw him moments before."
"He was being, in some ways, very gracious to us because he had mentioned quite a few times he just wants to deal with his farm, he just wants to go to his farm and deal with his farm and be with his kids so we were very grateful to have him as this sort of glue for that area so it's a huge loss, another gap to be filled."
And in the wake of Lewis' murder, Noralez says that they've been trying to change the system of payment for LIU workers for months.
Dominique Noralez, Chairlady, LIU
"For us, I think since my coming on to LIU as director, it's been one of the things that I really wanted to optimize, the cheque system is not safe for many reasons, including the reason which contributed to Mr Lewis' passing so we're trying to optimize that, getting rid of the cheque system and moving towards the Digi Wallet being our distribution system. And then of course making sure that, because everyone has to come to our office for the cheques so that creates another level of security concerns and then our officers have to deal with that which is another level and everyone going to these, even though they could go to other places, everyone seemingly was comfortable with the Kim Shop location so it creates a lot of danger for everyone involved so I'm doing my best to optimize that."
According to Romero, the suspects are rival gang members from that same area.
According to ACP Romero, they have not linked any of the other shootings over the weekend to this murder.
