Three persons of San Pedro are alive but hurt after they were shot in two separate shooting incidents on the island on Saturday, May 17, and Sunday, May 18.
A 17-year-old girl, Irma Mejia, was shot multiple times in her house in a violent home invasion by two men, while a mother and her son were shot while socializing in front of their house in the San Pedrito area.
Mejia, of the San Pablo area of San Pedro Town, was shot in the right side of her lower abdomen and in the right side of the jaw. She has been listed as being in a critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH).
Nigel Polanco, 23, a construction worker of San Pedrito, was shot in the right leg and his mother, Aurora Gonzalez, 45, also of San Pedrito, was shot in the knees. They were treated at the San Pedro Poly Clinic and have since been taken to the KHMH for further treatment.
Police said that about 3:15 Saturday morning, Irma Mejia was sleeping in her room on Marina Drive in the San Pablo area in San Pedro, with her 1-month-old baby, when gunmen shot at her apartment door lock, rendering the lock useless.
The gunmen then opened the door, went into her room and shot her. The gunmen then ran out of the house.
Police found the girl lying in pools of her blood in her room. She was rushed to the San Pedro Polyclinic II, after which she was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in a critical condition on a plane known as Wings of Hope.
Police recovered two slugs at the scene. Superintendent Luis Castellanos, Commander of San Pedro Police, believes that the shooting is drug-related.
Later, police arrested two persons of Sea Grape Street in San Pedro and charged them with the attempted murder of the girl. They are a minor, 16, and Lincoln Robinson, 41. They were taken to the San Pedro Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Monday, and arraigned and remanded to the Belize Central Prison until July 30, when they will reappear in court.
Then, at about 11o’clock Saturday night, Aurora Gonzalez and her son, Nigel Polanco, were socializing in front of their yard in San Pedrito when a youth, 17, who is reportedly known to them, approached and fired at them.
The boy then ran out of the area. Police took both victims to the San Pedro Police Clinic, where they were stabilized, after which they were rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) for further medical treatment.
Gonzalez and Polanco are presently admitted to ward in the KHMH.
Police who processed the scene recovered one live and one empty shotgun cartridge.
Superintendent Luis Castellanos said that the shooting is due to an ongoing rivalry between the youth and Polanco. He said that four months ago, Polanco and the youth became involved in a fight, in which the youth had beaten Polanco.
In December 14, 2013, further serious friction followed between Polanco and the youth, who lives in San Pedrito; police had intervened, but the families requested no court action, and the matter was thought to have been resolved between them.
Superintendent Castellanos said that after the shooting on Sunday, the boy’s mother has cooperated with the investigation fully; the boy went to police and he was taken into custody and charged with wounding.
Police said that they will continue to investigate, because the boy was injured when he was detained, and they need to know why.