by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Tues. May 2, 2023
Over the long weekend, three young men were fatally shot in separate incidents in Belize City.
The most recent shooting occurred on Sunday, April 30, just before 10:00 a.m. The victim, Adrian Pook, was walking on an unnamed street and was nearing his family’s yard when a gunman with a 9-millimeter pistol was spotted waiting inside the yard.
While waiting for Pook, the gunman was reportedly spotted by Pook’s mother, who alerted the family of the presence of the perpetrator. The gunman then attempted to escape; however, he was accosted by Pook’s family members, including Pook’s father, who tried to disarm him, but during their struggle with the gunman, a bullet was fired which wounded Pook, who had not yet entered his yard, in the abdomen, and it has been reported that the family had not been initially aware that Pook had been shot, since he had been trying to enter the yard to help his family when the shot was fired.
According to reports, the accused shooter, who has been identified as Criston Francis, 18, a resident of Aloe Vera Street, Belize City, received a thorough beating in the process of his apprehension and citizens’ arrest by Pook’s family members before he was handed over to police, who took him to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for treatment for the injuries he received.
In 2011, Pook and two of his siblings were accused of the murder of Errol “Lighter” Ferguson, and the three brothers had been remanded at the Belize Central Prison for almost a decade, until 2019, when they were acquitted of all charges.
But Pook had become an active member of the LIU (Leadership Intervention Unit) and worked night shifts at the Port of Belize, in addition to doing odd jobs in the surrounding neighborhood.
It had been reported that Francis is to be charged with murder in connection with Pook’s death.
Another tragic shooting occurred on Friday evening, April 28, after 5:00 p.m., when Charles Canton, 30, an employee of the Holy Redeemer Credit Union, was accidentally killed inside his parked Ford Escape on 2nd Street in the Kings Park area while drinking in the company of two friends: 24-year-old Tehje Vaughan, and another male.
According to reports, while in the vehicle Canton had loaded his licensed firearm and placed it on the handrest inside the vehicle. After he had done so, Vaughn, who was in the rear passenger seat, reportedly reached for the firearm and accidentally fired a single round which penetrated through the back of the front seat and wounded Canton, killing him instantly.
“Everybody is in shock, still. We’d be having a regular conversation, and then Charles would say something out of nowhere. I think everyone is still in shock,” said Victor Evans, a relative of Canton.
“Charles was a really good guy. Loves his family; that’s the biggest thing I want to say, that he loves his family, and his family loved him. We’ve all been together in Sandhill for the last few days – it’s all our aunty and relative houses, like forty or fifty people at a time. He loved sports and was good in every sport,” Evans added.
Vaughan, who is the daughter of Belize City Councilor Albert Vaughn, was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, May 2, and was charged with manslaughter by negligence. She was denied bail by the Magistrate, but Vaughan’s attorney, Leeroy Banner, applied for Supreme Court bail during the week, and on Thursday, May 4, it was given to her.
She was given bail in the sum of two sureties of $10,000 each and is expected to return to court on July 3 of this year.
Canton leaves behind a toddler daughter.
On the night before that shooting in Kings Park, another young man was also fatally wounded by gunshots. Sylvian Nigel Swift, also known as “Bigs”, was executed on Thursday night, April 27, before 8:00 p.m., a stone’s throw away from his home on Antelope Street.
Reports have indicated that he arrived at home around 5:30 p.m., and went to a friend’s home not too far from his; and while he was there, one of two riders on a motorcycle heading in the direction of Central American Boulevard began blasting gunshots, which hit Swift, although, according to some reports, he was not the intended target.
Police in the area confronted the two suspects and fired shots, causing them to fall off the motorcycle and drop a 9-millimeter pistol. The gunmen then fled by jumping over a fence, after which police recovered the firearm.
Anthony Carballo, Jr., was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court, where he was charged with murder in connection with the shooting that caused Swift’s death. He was denied bail and was remanded in prison.