BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Sept. 15, 2016–Candace Anderson, age not given, the niece of Prime Minister Dean Barrow, was shot while socializing in a yard that the Gang Suppression Unit (GSU), in a report on Tuesday, September 14, alleged to be a “weed peddler’s paradise.”
At around 2:30 p.m. today, Thursday, two men on a motorbike pulled up to the residence of Arthur Higgs, Sr., on 7th Street in Kings Park. One of the men got off the motorbike and proceeded to the back of the yard where a crowd had gathered.
The unidentified man, of Creole descent, then drew a 9mm pistol and fired three shots, one of which hit Anderson in her right leg.
Anderson, who works in the Financial Supervision Sector Department (FSSD) at the Central Bank of Belize, was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) for treatment by police who arrived on the scene, and has since been listed in a stable condition.
According to one of the men who were inside the yard at the time of the incident, Anderson was not the intended target; she was in front of the intended target, who escaped unharmed.
He further told us that she bled profusely and even fainted on her way to the hospital.
When Amandala spoke to the Officer Commanding Precinct 3, Superintendent Hilberto Romero, he confirmed that the incident indeed occurred.
On Tuesday, this same yard was searched by GSU officers and six men were arrested and charged for two counts of possession of controlled drugs with the intent to supply.
While northside police are yet to detain any suspects, they told our newspaper that an intensive investigation will be launched into this brazen crime.