The ongoing, senseless gun violence in Belize City has claimed the life of Herman Lanza, 37, who, his family says, had retired from the gang life and was the father of a young son.
Lanza’s body is now in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Morgue, where it awaits an autopsy. Funeral services are scheduled for Sarurday, April 13 at 10:00 a.m., St. Martin De Porres Church after which he will be laid to rest at the Lord Ridge Cemetery.
Lanza was shot multiple times in his head and body in front of a Chinese store at the corner of Casuarina and Poinsettia Streets, in the St. Martin De Porres area of Belize City just a short distance away from his house, where he had gone to purchase a dollar’s worth of cigarettes around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 7.
Witnesses, who saw him on the pavement bleeding, told Amandala that his left hand was hanging limply, and that pieces of ribs, brain and flesh were on the ground. He was extensively “shot up”.
His sister, Katina, said that she was at home when she heard the many gunshots, and shortly after she went to the area and saw her brother on the ground, “shot up” and dead. Police were already on the scene, and she identified her brother to them; they then took him away to the morgue, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Katina said that it was a shock to her. Lanza was known to everyone, and was helpful and willing to assist others, she said. He had worked with a Doctor Cervantes, and others, and he had not given any indication that his life was in danger, nor had he been jittery or apprehensive. He was “cool”, she said, when he left the yard to go to the Chinese shop.
Just before his murder, Lanza had been at home, before leaving momentarily and returning shortly after with some things that he gave to her boyfriend, who had been sewing his slippers. It was shortly after this that he went again, she said, for the second time, this time, to buy the cigarettes.
Lanza had told the media that he had left behind his life of being a criminal, and now had love in his heart.
He had surmised about the day of his death, and in an interview on Channel 7 in 2009, he had said that he wanted to tell anyone who in the future would come to kill him, that they would have to kill him by the grace of the good Lord, Jesus Christ’s name, because he was now fearless.
He went on to say that he had love in his heart and respect for everybody, even the younger “hurry come-ups,” who were trying to kill him. If Ghost Town wanted to kill him, he said, he didn’t fear them, but instead, he said, he gave them respect. They are Crips; he was a Crips, he had mentioned. He went on to say that he wanted to stop the beefing and to let bygones be bygones – adding that what happened back in prison should remain there.
Lanza had been convicted many times – some estimate it to be as many as 12 times, going back to 1985 when he served 13 years in jail for the armed robbery of Crystal Auto Rentals.
In August 2005, he was charged for attempted murder, grievous harm and use of deadly means of harm against Dean Bennett. Police say that Bennett was stabbed six times in the chest and abdomen. Lanza pleaded guilty to grievous harm and instead of jail time, got a fine of three thousand dollars, plus an order to pay two thousand dollars in compensation to Dean Bennett.
Two details of his death presented to Amandala are conflicting. A witness who was with him told Amandala that he and Lanza had been smoking weed and drinking wine that Holy Saturday when they rode onto Casuarina Street to the Chinese store to buy the cigarettes, and that he (the witness) had continued to a house where wine was sold to buy some more.
He said that he saw four men get off their bicycles, throw them down on the ground, and walk up Casuarina Street towards Lanza, who by this time had gone into the Chinese store, and immediately after, he heard gunshots.
The shooting apparently started after Lanza came out of the store.
The witness said that many shots—around 15– were fired, and then he heard four shotgun blasts. He immediately ran across a field and took cover. The men then ran to the end of Poinsettia Street at its junction with Flamboyant Street, got on their bicycles that had already been taken there for them and escaped into the night, the witness said.
Poinsettia Street is a small street that joins Casuarina to Flamboyant Street. It is believed that accomplices took the bikes ahead and put them there for the gunmen to get away.
The second account of the shooting was that a car drove past Lanza on Casuarina Street and stopped a short distance from the Chinese store. Four men got out and walked back towards the store after he had entered the store. When he walked out, with his purchases, they opened fire on him. He was blasted with a 12-gauge shotgun and shot multiple times with pistols.
The men then ran down Poinsettia Street, across Flamboyant Street into Oleander, the street that runs from Mahogany to Vernon Street, and got back into the car near Vernon and Oleander Streets, near the football field, drove down Vernon Street and disappeared.
Police are investigating, but so far no one has been arrested,
Herman Cardinal Lanza is survived by his son, his mother, 8 brothers, 6 sisters (including Katina), many nieces, relatives and friends. The family requests that monetary donations be made to defray the funeral expenses, in lieu of flowers and wreaths.
The family can be contacted at 625- 0176 for donations or assistance.