Doctors advised the family to take Jahmeel abroad for specialist treatment
ROARING CREEK, Cayo District, Thurs. Jan. 17, 2019– Jahmeel Reyes, 15, a student of Roaring Creek who was beaten and shot in the back of his head and left to die, lies in a critical condition in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. We checked with his family on Wednesday and they told us that Reyes was in an induced coma and doctors had not yet conducted surgery to remove the slug that is lodged in his head because his brain was swollen.
Yesterday evening, the family told us that a second CAT scan was conducted to monitor the swelling on his brain, but doctors decided that they still couldn’t proceed with the operation. The family said that doctors told them that he had a 50-50 chance of surviving.
The family told us today that Reyes was taken out of the coma by doctors so that they could determine whether he could survive without the machines, but he was unable to, and so he was put back into the coma. The doctors told them that they couldn’t perform the operation to remove the slug from his head, and that they should try to take him abroad for urgent specialist attention.
The family said that their medical expenses are growing and they will be conducting fundraising drives on Friday and Saturday in the village to try and raise money to pay the medical bills and take him abroad for further medical treatment.
Anyone who wishes to help the family with monetary donations can do so by contacting them at phone number 600-4023.
The shooting occurred at about 4:00 Saturday evening in the Hattieville area of Roaring Creek Village. Police said that Reyes was socializing with his friends at the creek when a gunman came out of the bushes nearby and fired at them, hitting Reyes in his head.
Reyes’s aunt said that besides being shot, he had bruises on the face and back and on the abdomen. The family says they don’t know who beat and shot him, and why they did it. Reyes had been buried in a shallow grave and left to die, but he managed to crawl out and seek help at a nearby house. A man at the house, and his brother who was with him, put Reyes in a car and took him to the hospital in Belmopan.
Police said that they were able to speak to him before he became unconscious.
The police’s investigation led them to Aaron Allan Hyde, 18, a fellow resident of Roaring Creek. Hyde was arrested and charged with attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm, aggravated assault and possession of an unlicensed firearm. He has since been taken to the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court and remanded.
Police told us that the attack on Jahmeel Reyes was prompted by a previous misunderstanding between him and Hyde.
Reyes’ family said that they are not aware of any friendship between him and Hyde, or of any misunderstanding.