A Belize City man and a 16-year-old minor who allegedly held up two persons around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday were remanded into custody this morning after they were arraigned on two counts of use of deadly means of harm with intent to cause dangerous harm.

Derrick Engleton, 27, a landscaper and resident of 16 Pelican Street, and his partner-in-crime, a 16-year-old minor, appeared before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer, who told them that she could not take a plea from them because the offenses for which they are charged are indictable.

When Frazer asked the minor where his parents were, he told her that his mother is dead. The minor said that he is a part-time student at Excelsior High School and works as a part-time messenger at Freetown Drug Store.

He told the police at the station that he is a minor, but they insisted that he was 18, and they refused to permit him to make a phone call, so he could have called his sister to come to the police station.

While Engleton was remanded to the Belize Central Prison, Frazer remanded the minor to the Youth Hostel and stipulated that he be allowed to continue going to school.

Engleton and the minor were remanded until their next court date on August 21.

Police laid the charges on them after two men – a Belizean, Egbert Jones, 24, and his American friend, known only by his first name Drycin, who was on a short visit to Belize – reported that Engleton and the minor accosted them while they were standing in front of the Pickstock Pre-School on Lovely Lane.

Jones told police that one of the two men put a gun at his head and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed.

When the gun failed to fire, the two culprits ran into a nearby yard and escaped. They were later apprehended after Jones reported the incident to police.