Police said he was shot twice; his family says it was 6 times
Based on late-breaking information that we received from police just before press time late yesterday evening, we reported that Albert Castro, 31, also known as “Chick”, a taxi driver, had died from head injuries he suffered during a shooting early Monday morning, but as it turns out, Castro is still alive, albeit clinging to life in critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Today, the Deputy Officer in Charge of Belize City Police’s Precinct 2, Assistant Superintendent Calbert Flowers, confirmed that contrary to prior reports, the shooting victim was still in the hospital, in a “very critical” condition.
He explained, “The information yesterday was mixed-up, and somehow, the information came out that he passed away, but he’s alive and he is in the hospital.”
Flowers said, “We have nothing so far, we are interviewing some people, we detained two persons who are presently in our custody, and we are continuing with our investigation.”
Although jealousy is believed to have been a possible motive, Flowers told us that while police are not ruling it out, they do not want to speculate.
“The investigation is ongoing [and] we are exploring all angles. We know that he lives in a different part of the city and he was shot far from the area where he lives, so we are looking at all angles, but we do not want to speculate and say that it is jealousy”, he commented.
Castro was shot multiple times, allegedly by two gunmen on bicycles as he was driving with a female companion in his green 4-door Mazda cab from the George Price Highway onto Fabers Road Extension in Belize City at about 3:30 yesterday morning, Monday.
While police have stated that Castro suffered two bullet wounds to the head, today, his family said that he was shot as many as six times, but remains in a coma, with three of the six bullets still lodged in his body; the other three have been removed.
Castro’s 26-year-old female passenger – whose name remains withheld as police carry out their investigations – managed to flee the vehicle unscathed, as it careened into a nearby drain in the wake of the ambush.