BELIZE CITY, Tues. Dec. 29, 2015–Lennox Perez Flowers, 18, of Partridge Street Extension, an employee of Chukka Tours, died after he was attacked by three men in Burrell Boom at celebrations after the annual Boxing Day horse race at the Castleton race track. One of the three men allegedly held him while the other two stabbed him in the left side and center of the chest, under the heart, the upper abdomen, his arm and in his back.

In the court of Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser this afternoon, a teenager and 6th form student of Wesley Junior College, Cecil Ramirez, 19, was remanded to the Belize Central Prison after he was arraigned on a charge of murder until his next court date on February 29, 2016.

Magistrate Fraser explained to him that she would not take a plea from him, because the matter for which he is charged is indictable and that after a preliminary inquiry is held at the Magistrate’s Court, his case would be submitted to the Supreme Court if the preliminary inquiry finds sufficient evidence against him.

Police have indicated that the investigation of Flowers’ murder is still ongoing, but so far, only Ramirez has been charged.

The incident occurred at the Castleton Horse Racing Track in Burrell Boom at about 7:00 on the evening of Boxing Day, Saturday, December 26. Flowers had left home at about 5:00 that Boxing Day evening to go to watch the horse races with his employer and to socialize at the after-party at the race-track.

Flowers’ family told Amandala that his ex-girlfriend, with whom he had been in a relationship that he had ended over a year ago, threatened him and threw a drink into his face.

His family said that Flowers’ employer was with him when the rejected girlfriend confronted him and threw a drink in his face, and he told them that Flowers did not retaliate.

Flowers’ employer then sent him to buy drinks at the bar, and he was returning with the drinks when he was attacked by three men, said the family.

Flowers’ family said that the girl was from the Ghost Town area in Belize City, and that although he had ended his relationship with her, she had refused to let him go, and had been harassing him in an effort to get him back.

His grieving mother, Jennifer Thomas, said that she was also not in favor of the girl, but her son had not told her that the girl was harassing him, because she would have intervened and put a stop to it.

Thomas said that shortly after her son left home to go to Burrell Boom that evening, she went to a wedding, and at about 9:00 that night, four hours after, she was told that he had been killed. She rushed to the hospital and saw him in the pan of the police mobile unit, and indeed, he was already dead.

His father, Lennox Flowers, told Amandala that he was at work when he was told that his son had been killed, and he rushed to the KHMH, where he saw his son, already dead.

In a police press brief held yesterday at the Ladyville Police Station, Senior Superintendent Edward Broaster, Commanding Officer of Rural Police, reported that Ladyville police were alerted about a fight in progress in Burrell Boom, and upon arriving at the scene, they saw a man with multiple stab wounds in his body, and he was rushed to the KHMH, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Although Broaster said that their investigation revealed that the altercation was caused by gang rivalry between the George Street and Ghost Town gangs, and that the men who stabbed Flowers are from the George Street gang and believed that Flowers was an associate of Ghost Town Crips, more than one credible source, including Flowers’ parents, strongly reject the police’s statement, saying that Flowers was not involved in, nor affiliated with gangs, and he was not a violent person.

They are very upset about the police’s statement and are calling on the Ladyville police to retract the statement.

Thomas said that her father, the popular boxing coach Ducho Thomas, now deceased, had instilled discipline in her children, and Flowers obeyed her and his grandfather and kept away from gangs and violence.

She said that her son could not be a part of a gang, since, when he was not at home, he was at his employer’s house in Belama, or was doing work for the Traffic Department, or at the Port.