BELIZE CITY, Tues. Oct. 19, 2021– On Monday, two men were remanded to the Belize Central Prison after being arraigned separately by Magistrate Khiana Gordon.
Kareem Beeks was read one single charge of murder and was remanded until December 29, 2021. He was unrepresented in court.
He is the accused driver and triggerman believed to be responsible for the broad daylight, drive-by shooting on Saturday that claimed the life of Giovanni Augustine.
Augustine was murdered by a man driving a white, tinted vehicle, according to police. He was killed in the presence of his girlfriend and other persons who were heading to the funeral of his girlfriend’s relative.
The second person to be remanded, Darrell “Tutsi” Usher, was found in possession of what is believed to be the murder weapon, shortly after the incident, when police approached him while he was in his vehicle. At that point, he had reportedly declared that an unlicensed gun was under his front passenger seat.
He had been in police custody since Saturday and was remanded on Monday for possession of the 9-mm Glock 19 found in his possession, as well as for his possession of four live rounds of ammunition that accompanied the pistol.
So far, there are no ballistic test results or other forms of evidence that can definitively identify the gun found in Usher’s possession as the murder weapon used to kill Augustine. However, unconfirmed reports are that this gun belongs to a WPC who is the girlfriend of the accused murderer.
The fact that it was found in Usher’s possession could legally implicate him as an accomplice in the shooting, but at this time the cases of Beeks and Usher are being treated independently. On Monday, the police department went to great lengths in with press briefing and written report to disassociate Usher with the incident and accused.
He is expected to have his bail application heard as early as this coming Friday, October 22, and may be granted bail at that time.
Beeks, on the other hand, will be spending the rest of the year behind bars until he reappears in court on December 29.
According to local reports, Usher is alleging that he was asked by police to recover the weapon, and en route to delivering the pistol to the Police Department he was intercepted, searched, and subsequently detained after declaring he had the pistol.