BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 27, 2022
Iwin Palma, 24, was shot multiple times and left for dead by a lone gunman sometime after midnight on Sunday morning in the Milpa area of Ladyville, police said today at a weekly police press briefing. Unconfirmed reports are that he had been involved in a prior confrontation with a person from a call center and made a report to police on the 16th of June, and one person was arrested.
He was found dead off a road in the Milpa area by police, who were notified of shots being fired by residents of the area. They found Palma with multiple gunshot wounds, dressed in blue short pants, a white t-shirt, and a black warm cap, with a Nike slipper on his foot.
Palma, who had been wounded in the head, right forearm, and right side of the buttocks, was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The Police Department’s communication director, ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, told reporters that they believe that the murder of Palma is likely connected to the prior incident involving the call center employee, in connection with which he had made a report.
“I know that on the 16th of June, Mr. Palma made a complaint to the police. The full content of that complaint I will not get into, but I know that we made an arrest, reference that complaint, and we at the Police Department believe that the person that was arrested for that incident…that the two incidents are probably related, so the investigators are looking at that angle and other angles. Most definitely, that is the most recent incident,” Yearwood said.
He said that a male person was charged with aggravated assault against Palma.