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Gun violence “reaches” Said Musa

HeadlineGun violence “reaches” Said Musa

Former Prime Minister reveals death threats in December; now house and car shot up

Police responded to a call yesterday morning, Wednesday, reporting that the house of former Prime Minister of Belize, Rt. Hon. Said Musa, had been shot at, and his wife’s vehicle “shot up”.

The shooting occurred at the corner of E Street and Princess Margaret Drive in the King’s Park area of Belize City. The former Prime Minister’s property was shot at about five times around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, January 15.

Police, in a press release issued today, Thursday, said that the vehicle was found “with two apparent bullet holes to the right front passenger door, (1) apparent bullet hole to the driver’s side door panel, and the rear passenger glass window shattered.”

The release added that police observed “an apparent bullet hole to the front screen door and wooden front door, damages to the front exterior cement wall, and damages to the interior cement wall near the front door of the residence.”

Five 9mm expended shells were recovered from the scene by police.

Musa said that he had locked up his house around 11:00 p.m. and retired to his bedroom when shortly after he heard multiple gunshots in the area.

He further stated that he and his wife got up out of bed and looked out the windows, but none of them saw anything suspicious or unusual.

“I suspected that perhaps it was gunfire coming from some distance away from this particular neighborhood and so we went back to bed,” he said. “This morning [Wednesday] I got up shortly before six, and when I went downstairs I noticed the main door had a hole in it, and I looked down and saw a piece of metal, like a slug.”

The former PM said that he got up on Wednesday morning to go to the gym, a usual morning routine of his. When he saw the piece of metal on the floor, he examined it more closely and realized that the door had been shot.

He then went outside, where he noticed that the windows of the rear passenger doors of his wife’s Santa Fe Hyundai had been shattered. The vehicle was parked in front of the house, within view of the door that had the hole in it.

“I drove then to the Princess Hotel without disturbing my wife or anyone else and spoke to two officers who were stationed at the Princess, and reported what I observed, and as a result of what they told me, I returned home and called 911 and informed the police. And the police responded promptly and carried out their investigation,” Musa said.

The five expended shells were found outside the fence on the E Street side of Musa’s yard. A clearly disturbed Musa confirmed a report that he and his wife had received death threats in December, 2012.

“It is a fact that phone calls were made, threatening, at my wife’s workplace at BCVI, threatening to harm, to kill both herself and myself, and there were four or five calls, at least two to BCVI (where his wife works) and subsequently some to my law firm at Musa and Balderamos’ business number,” he said.

“This was like two weeks before Christmas and the police were alerted to this, and the police have been investigating that, but so far have been unable to come up with any particular lead,” Musa further stated.

Musa said that he does not know why he would be receiving threats from anyone. He said that the threats involved messages such as, “Tell di man give us the paper… Otherwise I wah kill Musa and he wife.”

Musa said that he does not believe the threats are connected to any of his legal work, as he was told that “the paper” in this situation refers to money.

“I am told that ‘the paper’ on the streets mean money, cash,” he said. He then added, “That’s as far as the extortion side of the threat went, but the real threat was to kill. Like I said, it was so bizarre, the whole thing. But Christmas came and went and that sort of died off. We didn’t receive any further threats until this incident now that took place last night.”
Musa said he is not sure as to what the shooter(s) might have been doing leading up to the time of the shots being fired, but he is convinced that they must have been studying the movements in the house because the shots were fired right after he turned off his lights.

“It wasn’t until after the lights went out upstairs, because we had already put out the lights downstairs. The bedroom lights were on because I was reading and like, I said, around 11, the lights went out and I went to bed and it was shortly after that that I heard this burst of gunfire,” he said.

Musa said that the incident has resulted in his accepting private security, something that he did not have even during his two terms as Prime Minister.

“Well, I’m very distraught about the whole thing,” he said. “It saddens me that throughout the time I was the Prime Minister of Belize, I never cared too much about my personal security. I had no bodyguards around me; I moved freely around this country.”

Musa said that the situation troubles him because although he had never been concerned about protection for himself and his family, he has to now. He said that the incident has also caused him to understand what other Belizeans are experiencing because of gun violence.

“It also brings home to me what many Belizeans have been experiencing,” he said. “This daily threat, this lack of personal safety, personal security, it really calls out for a balanced approach of fighting this crime problem.”

He said that he is against the use of the draconian measures being implemented as a method of fighting crime by the current administration, because it abuses the civil liberty of citizens.

“I believe we need to have a balanced approach,” he said. “Yes, we must step up law enforcement and strengthen the police, the resources they need to fight, personnel as well as other resources, equipment and so on. But also we really need to get to the root causes of crime in our country, because the situation has escalated to such a level that no one feels safe anymore, especially in Belize City.”

Musa said that he believes that to fight crime, there must be community involvement.

“But we also have to deal with the real problems in education, in healthcare, in housing conditions of our people, in jobs most of all and the recreation our young people need, sports and other such things. These things need to be emphasized far more,” he said.

“As our Leader of The Opposition, our party leader has been saying time and time again, and has emphasized only recently, we have to work together in a bipartisan fashion … the community as a whole, the people as a whole, must understand that we cannot allow the criminals to take control of our streets and our neighborhoods,” Musa said.

PUP Leader Francis Fonseca and a number of PUP members were present at the time the former PM spoke to the media about the incident. Fonseca said that there has been an increasing loss in the sense of personal security among citizens.

“We’re very concerned, and at this point we want to make sure that we can focus on helping the police deal with an investigation, a proper investigation of this matter,” Fonseca said. “And obviously, as I have consistently said, we need to continue to work with the government.”

Fonseca said that the Prime Minister, Hon. Dean Barrow, had contacted him on Wednesday morning to talk about his concerns about Musa’s situation, and he said that the PM, on behalf of the government, offered security for both Musa and Fonseca.

However, Fonseca said that he has not yet taken up the offer, as it’s something he is not comfortable with.

“It’s something we’re not very comfortable with,” he said. “I think all of us who are politicians in Belize, we move around freely. I move around Belize City, I move around the country very freely. I feel very comfortable.”

Fonseca said that the main priority at the moment is the security of Musa and his family. He ended saying that his party is willing to assist the police in whatever way in the investigation of the incident.

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