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Armed men assault and rob Northern Highway family

GeneralArmed men assault and rob Northern Highway family
A family of nine was held at gunpoint for almost an hour by four assailants who gained entry into their 3-storey home, tied up the four men in the house and beat them with a machete and a gun. One of the women of the house, a 19-year-old who is nine months pregnant, begged for her safety and the safety of her unborn child during the home invasion.
  
The men were later cornered by police officers on a back street in the Driftwood Bay community off the Northern Highway, and one of the men was injured by a gunshot during a shootout between them and the police officers.
  
Amandala found out from sources that the assailants had opened fire on the police, which ended with about 50 shots being fired between the police and themselves. The shooting took place about two lots away from former Minister of Police and Public Safety, Douglas Singh’s home.
  
According to police, the incident took place on Monday, March 5, 2012, at approximately 10:36 p.m., at a home near Mile 4 ½ on the Northern Highway.
  
They said that the owner of the house, a businessman who we observed with an injured left arm, reported that while at home with his family, three armed men (Amandala was later told by residents and other family members that it was actually four men) entered their home from the direction of the highway and tied them up with ropes, then robbed them.
  
We spoke with the 19-year-old pregnant woman, who told us that apparently, the robbers had initially come from the direction of the Driftwood Bay community and had walked alongside their fence. The robbers then jumped over the fence, reaching the front of the house, where one of her brothers, 16, was standing.
  
According to this victim, a family friend, also 16, was standing on the 2nd-storey balcony when he saw the unmasked men running toward the girl’s brother at the front of the house. At the time, the family had three dogs that were loose in the yard.
  
The assailants quickly held the minor at gunpoint and forced him into the house, where they immediately pounced on the other occupants of the home, demanding money while beating the men in the house — the two minors, a 19-year old and their father, 50 years old.
           
The pregnant victim told us today, “My brother that was upstairs saw them and he began screaming; I was thinking that they were there to steal the car, because three weeks ago they were trying to steal the car, but I guess not”.
  
She told us that she was in the first room of the bottom flat and that she immediately locked herself in the room in fear for her life.
  
“When they got in here [her family told her the story, since she was in the room at this point], my boyfriend [the 19-year-old man] got a machete and they ran after him, and they held him at gunpoint, and they had my mom at gunpoint too; they shoved him down and they took away the machete from him,” she said.
  
While inside the home, the assailants started cutting the cords from every electronic appliance. The cords were then used to tie the hands of the men; they then forced the men to lie on their stomachs in the living room area.
  
“They were asking for money and guns; they were insisting that we had money and guns, and they started beating [the men] with the machete. They were spanking them in their backs, on their elbows, gun butting them in their faces.
  
“…[the entire robbery took about] an hour and a half, because everything stopped around 11:30 p.m.; they forced me out of the room, they told me if I didn’t come out they were going to kill someone outside, so I came out.
  
“At this time I had already called people to come and help. When they took me out, they began asking me where is the money, and who I had called, because they found my phone,” she explained.
  
She told us that when she opened the door she began pleading to the robbers not to hurt her, at which point one of them replied that they wouldn’t hurt her, that they just wanted money.
  
The robbers were able to steal about $300 cash and over $1,000 worth of gold jewelry from all the hostages, two laptops, cell phones, and electronic devices. The robbers then fled from the same front entrance toward the back of the house in the direction of the sea when they heard a vehicle, a police mobile, arriving at the front of the house. 
  
According to additional information provided to us by witnesses, the four assailants hid behind a huge cargo tank, a few yards from the sea on the back street of the Northern Highway in the Driftwood Bay community.
  
It was at this point that police, including primarily members of the Gang Suppression Unit (GSU), arrived on the same back street. They parked a few yards away and walked in, and began searching for the assailants when the assailants began firing on them.
  
At the end of the exchange of gunfire, a total of about 50 shots were fired, and one of the robbers was wounded in the left shoulder; the bullet exited his lower back.
  
The robber was detained and transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he is currently still receiving treatment.
  
We also discovered that last week an unknown man was caught peeping in through a window of the family home on the highway; the pregnant victim told us that she and her family should have called for the police at that time, but they were unaware of the danger.
  
This victim told us that a neighbor mentioned to them that suspicious persons had been seen scouting out their home, also.
  
This family had only recently lost a family member to gun violence. Leonel Jose Donaire, 20, was shot multiple times in his head on December 7, 2009, by unknown persons; his body was discovered in the residential area of Jabiru Street and Fabers Road, Belize City. 
  
He had been out in his red Geo Prizm vehicle on that same night prior to his death; his vehicle had been discovered by police the night after, on December 8, abandoned on Basra Street, Belize City.

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