_{Photo: Alwin Arnold Vasquez, deceased}

by Charles Gladden

ORANGE WALK, Mon. Sept. 23, 204

A young man from the St. Martin De Porres area of Belize City was killed over the weekend as a result of an argument he had with a Hispanic man during the Orange Walk Carnival festivities on Independence Day, Saturday, September 21.

Initial reports suggest that around 9:00 p.m., 23-year-old Alwin Arnold Vasquez was with a group of his friends being spectators during the carnival. The group was walking along the Belize-Corozal Road in the Orange Walk District when there was a confrontation with a group of men, which developed into a fight and resulted in Vasquez being stabbed multiple times.

As mentioned above, Vasquez’s attacker produced a knife and stabbed him multiple times in the abdomen before fleeing the scene. After he was attacked, Vasquez was taken to the Northern Regional Hospital (NRH).

ACP Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander for the Belize Police Department’s Eastern Division, said persons were consuming alcoholic beverages during the festivities, and that authorities are still unclear on what started the fight.

Vasquez, who passed away moments after 10:00 p.m., is the second murder victim in recent Orange Walk Carnival festivities. Bernard Timmons of Belize City was killed in 2022, when his assailant inflicted a chop wound to the back of his neck.

While Vasquez’s stabbing was fatal, there other stabbing incidents that were unreported and nonfatal for that weekend. On that same day, a father and son were attacked along the route of the carnival at a bar, where they worked.

Reports are that between 7:50 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., 48-year-old Francis Bustamante Senior and 28-year-old Francis Bustamante Junior, both of Carmelita Village, Orange Walk District, were at a bar when a fight ensued between them and a man. This led to the father and son being stabbed by said male person – Bustamante Senior was listed in stable condition and Bustamante Junior is critical at the NRH.

ACP Romero mentioned that the stabbing stemmed from a dispute the accused had over the purchasing of some drinks. Nobody has yet been detained for the crime.