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Big Falls store owner killed in robbery attempt

GeneralBig Falls store owner killed in robbery attempt
Francis Johnston, 64, a farmer and owner of a store and gas station in Big Falls Village, Toledo District, was shot to death by one of three armed men in an apparent robbery Saturday night.
  
While crime is sadly a commonplace occurrence in Belize City, and in some other parts of the country, Toledo rarely sees crime of any kind, let alone violent crime. By Amandala’s statistics, the entire Toledo District has only recorded 3 murders in the 21 months from December of 2007 to August of 2009 – a period that saw over 150 murders committed elsewhere.
  
That kind of statistic, unfortunately, makes events like these particularly tragic.
  
According to Punta Gorda police, around 7:00 p.m. Saturday, September 12, they were called out to Johnston’s store in Big Falls. Johnston had already been rushed to the Punta Gorda Hospital with a gunshot wound to his midsection but according to police, he died upon arrival, the first murder victim for all of 2009 thus far in the Toledo District.
  
Police say the shop was in the process of closing for business around 7:20 p.m. when the robbers surprised Francis, his wife Amelia and their son Andy at the store. Two masked men, armed with handguns, rushed in, while a third waited outside.
  
A source close to the police investigation told us on Sunday afternoon that Andy was knocked out with a bottle of rum by one of the robbers, while his mother, Amelia, after a short struggle with another of the robbers, managed to escape and went to seek help at a neighbor’s yard. Police say that on her way to her neighbours, she heard a gunshot.
  
The robbers stole an unknown amount of money and telephone cards from Johnston’s store and jewelry belonging to Johnston himself, then escaped in his blue Ford Ranger double cab pickup truck with Toledo license plates C-2071. A trailer, also owned by Johnston, was attached to the vehicle.
  
Our source said that the robbers ditched the trailer near the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Big Falls, ¼ of a mile from the site of the robbery/murder, and apparently fled north on the Southern Highway toward Independence and destinations further north (Police say they drove toward Indian Creek, but our source reports that they turned off at the Silver Creek junction, which comes before Indian Creek when traveling north.)
  
Latest reports are that the vehicle was found on the Jalacte-Santa Cruz road on the Belizean side of the border with Guatemala, indicating that the robbers apparently took the turnoff at Silver Creek and fled through the back roads of Silver Creek, San Miguel, San Pedro Columbia and San Antonio villages toward Guatemala.
  
(Curiously, the official police report as written by press officer Clement Palacio states that the pickup “has still not been located,” but our P.G. source tells us that family and friends of Johnston, including his son Andy, personally went to retrieve the vehicle, and Andy himself drove it to the P.G. police station on Sunday evening.)
  
Police have made no arrests, but an intensive investigation continues.
  
Johnston was an interested party in the Toledo Maya Land Rights case filed by the Maya Leaders Alliance and various other Maya organizations in the Supreme Court last year related to a piece of land he worked in Golden Stream village. That case is pending judgment.
  
We are told that a post-mortem is scheduled in Belize City, date and time unknown, as the family is struggling to transport the body to Belize City because body bags are not available in P.G.
  
(Note: Special thanks to Paul Mahung of Punta Gorda for his assistance with this story.)

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