by Charles Gladden
HATTIEVILLE, Belize District, Tues. Aug. 15, 2023
Police are currently carrying out an investigation to find out who took the life of a Hattieville resident who was found dead in a bushy area on the side of the George Price Highway shortly before midnight on Monday, August 14.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the deceased, 56-year-old Egbert Arnold, Sr., also known as “Bertie”, was riding his bicycle north of the highway in the vicinity of Mile 16.5 sometime after 10:00 p.m. when he was approached and fatally shot in his body by an unknown gunman.
When police arrived at the scene, they discovered Arnold’s motionless body with gunshot injuries and his bicycle beside him on the right side of the highway.
His body was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
While at the scene, authorities were able to recover 2 expended nine-millimeter shells.
Relatives of Arnold, who was a handyman who did odd jobs around the community to survive, told local reporters that they are baffled by what happened to him, as he wasn’t one to cause any trouble.
Arnold’s children are experiencing an ordeal similar to what they went through.in 2017, when their mother was fatally shot at her workplace, Triple A Security Services, by her employer, who then took his own life.
Arnold fathered 9 children and had several grandchildren, and had recently relocated to the area after spending some years in Belize City.