The well-known, good-hearted businessman was killed for $1,000

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Apr. 23, 2018– Around 1:00 p.m. today, three young men walked into Rosado’s Construction Supplies, located at the beginning of the George Price Highway, opposite Partridge Street at its junction with the highway.

A few minutes later, the unmistakable sound of gunfire was heard and the three men dashed out of the store, leaving Oscar Rosado, Sr., the store’s owner, mortally wounded on the floor of his store. They ran across the highway, into the Lord Ridge Cemetery. Two policemen on the scene attempted to set chase, but the overweight cops were no match for the young men, who out-ran them.

Notwithstanding government’s desperate move to halt crime on the south side of Belize City by putting Belize Defence Force soldiers on street patrol alongside police officers, gun violence continues to plague hardworking, innocent Belizeans. Since the measure was put in place in the middle of last month, there have been several murders in the embattled old capital.

Since the area around the store became a crime scene, police diverted the westbound traffic through Partridge Street, while the eastbound traffic coming into the city was at a standstill.

Crime scene technicians began marking the spot where expended shells had fallen, and the tally of retrieved shells rose to 17.

People on the scene said that the gunmen had exchanged fire with the police who were pursuing them. A Belize Emergency Response Team (BERT) ambulance howled its way onto the scene and parked in front of the store. Personnel from the ambulance came back out after a few minutes and the ambulance left, an ominous sign that there had been a fatality.

The 70-year-old Rosado’s body was taken by police to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital morgue.

Afterwards, his widow, Elena Rosado, spoke to reporters.

“Three young men came in the store and said they wanted to purchase nails,” Rosado replied to the question about what happened there today.

‘So I tell one of the workmen to please get the nails. He paid me with a ten dollars and I gave him his change, and dem gone,” Rosado said.

“But before dem gone, dem di look behind where I have my phone and my son’s phone on a little table behind there. I tell the young man, Jovan, ‘I no think dem young man ya wan no nail, you know. Dem the look fu thief!’ Dat da one thing wid me, as I look at you, I wan know if you da wan thief,” she said.

Rosado explained that about five minutes after the men left, they returned and told her, “Dat nail da no di nail weh wi want.”

“So the same young man, Jovan, came and took the nails out of the bag. The one weh pay mi, he di stand up, because we deh face to face. E di put ih hand inna ih pocket. When ih see him di try put ih hand inna ie pocket, I seh dis da gun,” the widow related.

Rosado said the young man brought the nails.

“So I move from behind the counter and de look fu come outside to stand by the door. So I tell him in Spanish to please watch dis side for me, fu mek the young man no understand weh I di tell am. He never deh pay me no mind, because he di focus on the truck weh ih just load fu mek dem boy go pan delivery,” she said.

Rosado explained that when she started to walk further, “the young man came and he hold me and him dih point the gun at me, and my husband deh by the door. I de come toward my husband, because I seh I wan run. My husband tell him to left me lone. He tell my husband to shut the f…up. And ih tell am ‘give me the gun,’ and he di do ih hand so.”

She further related, “Ih tell mi husband to give him his gun, and my husband ask him ‘what wrong with yu?’

“And my husband, wid ih two hand, hold am and push am. When ih push am now, he gone and stumble and he dih look fu drop pan top a di Coke crates, and da so he let go the shat [he shot the gun] and my husband drop pan the side, because he gi am di bullet right inna ih forehead.

“So now, when I see my husband drop, I seh well, da dead ih dead, because I see blood on ih head and ih face, and the boy still bend down and shat am [again] and tek ih wallet.”

Describing what happened at that point, she said, “And the same time my son come out the office, because he mi dih do some paperwork. And I holler and tell my son, please run back, please run back, and da so the young man dih point the gun on my son, Oscar Junior.

“Oscar said ‘I come out because I hear gunshot,’ so I tell am run da back. When I tell am run da back, da because the young man got the gun dih point at him now.

“Then Oscar Junior throw himself down behind the counter, and da so the young man run, and as ih run out, him di let go a lotta shats outside. He fired bout 10 shots.”

Rosado said that they were held up in 1999.

“And I tell the government, if you want, just ker dem out a Central Park and I could do the killing fu dem,” she remarked.

Rosado added, “if I woulda get my hands on dis boy, I no wan shat am, because I know da who, but when I hold him, I sorry fu him, because when I done wid him, ih wan can’t shoot nobody else, cause I wan bruk ih two hands and I wan bruk ih two foot.”

Rosado was asked if she was afraid, and she replied, “I no fraid, I no wan give up. God deh wid mi. My husband was a good man, if he [the shooter] mi need money, if he mi need a hundred dollars and he mi ask my husband, he mi wan give am.”

Rosado explained that her husband had about one thousand dollars in his wallet.

“So fi mek dem kill yu fi wan thousand dollars, dat no worth the while,” Rosado said.

“Da the system have to get to dem boy ya. Dem hold dem, and dem go and dem come out back free. Dem come out fu go kill somebody, somebody innocent,” she said.

Rosado was asked to speak about her husband and what he had meant to their family.

“Well, he all the time seh he deh wid God, every day he pray his Rosary, every night he pray ih Rosary. If you come and you tell him dat you hungry, he wan gi yu wan five dollars, and tell you go eat. Dis morning, one a wi workman, ih wife call am and tell am da ih sick, my husband get forty dollars outa ih wallet and give the young man, and tell am, kerr ih wife da hospital,” Rosado disclosed.

In 1999 Oscar Rosado, Sr. was shot in his store and in 2006, he fired shots at a robber. The store never installed security cameras, and Rosado was asked about that, and she replied that even if there are security cameras, “dem wan still kill yu.” “Wan next time when dem come and I see dem dih put dem hand inna dem pocket, maybe I wan be faster dan dem. So when dem come now, I wan ready fu dem, because I no fraid fu dem,” she said.

Rosado said that they have been at the location about twenty-five years, and the store was named Rosado’s Hardware, but last year they changed its name to Rosado Construction Supplies.

Rosado was asked what she would say if she sees the person who killed her husband.

She replied that she would not say anything to the person. “I just wan hold him, then you would see what I would do to him, because they kill senseless,” she said.