This past Tuesday afternoon, well-known cyclist and messenger for Santiago Castillo Limited, Ernest “Dangalang” Thurton, was ruthlessly murdered while at his aunt’s home in Junesville in the Lake Independence area, and today police declared that they have two persons of interest in custody in connection with his execution.

His killing – which was believed to have been motivated by robbery – has deeply depressed his family and stunned those in the cycling community, and although we understand that the two detainees are not cooperating at this time, police said that they are trying to find witnesses who can assist with possible identification of the culprits.

In a press briefing today, Superintendent Alford Grinage, the Officer in Charge of Precinct 2, Belize City Police Formation, said that although the investigation is still in its infancy stage, they are convinced that the motive was robbery, since the robbers may have thought that Thurton was carrying cash.

He said that on Tuesday, April 14, between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., police were informed that a shot had been fired in the Junesville area of the Saint Martin De Porres area, and when they went to the area, they found the body of a Creole man, later identified as Thurton, lying face-down behind a coconut tree in the back of a yard. The man “appeared to have received a gunshot wound to the body—the left side of the abdomen” and was pronounced dead on the scene, he said.

Grinage went on to say that they later found out, after conducting an initial investigation, that Ernest Thurton, of Queen Charlotte Street in Belize City, had gone “to the residence of his relative, who is in the United States, as a caretaker, and he was attacked by what we now know were two male persons, [one of] whom inflicted the wound.”

According to Grinage, there are several leads that police are working on, and while they try to link the two persons in custody to the crime, investigators are doing all they can to piece together the circumstances surrounding the robbery/murder and ensure that the persons responsible are brought to justice as soon as possible.

Police are yet to recover the weapon used in the incident, and are relying on leads from witnesses and trying to identify additional witnesses who could provide more information.

So far, investigators have confirmed that a knapsack which was on Thurton’s back, and other documents belonging to his employer were missing from the scene; however, Supt. Grinage did not divulge how the criminals got to the scene or whether the persons in custody are from the immediate area.

The 41-year-old cyclist and father of 6 was callously shot dead after he was confronted by two robbers who might have been stalking him when he went to check on his aunt’s house near Cumberbatch Street on Tuesday after taking some checks to the Income Tax Department.

The grief felt by Thurton’s family is especially heart-wrenching, since we understand that he was planning his wedding to his long-time common-law wife in early June of this year.

The affiliate of the “Weekend Warriors” cycling fraternity and longtime member of the Team Santino’s Cycling Club, affectionately known as “Dangalang”, was one of Belize’s veteran cyclists who had been riding for the past 30 years and had accumulated numerous trophies and awards in the process.

Ernest Thurton will be laid to rest next Friday, April 25, in Belize City.