In a scene reminiscent of the brazenness of the Mexican drug cartels, two assassins in broad daylight this morning ambushed Andre Trapp, the reputed leader of the so-called Southside gang, in the Belize City Magistrate Courts’ parking lot. Trapp was fatally shot, despite the number of policemen and court officials normally present at the many courtrooms at the Magistrate Courts. Not only that, Belize City’s Supreme Courts are adjacent to the Magistrate Courts, separated only by a narrow street.
“Dre” Trapp, 24, had just walked down the broad steps of the court of Magistrate Sharon Frazer after being arraigned on a drug possession charge. This was across the street from the rear of Brodie’s Supermarket on Regent Street. It was around 10:18 a.m. when Trapp, who had been in hiding for some time, turned left into the parking lot behind the court.
It was as he was going toward his vehicle, a gold Suburban, that Trapp was shot by two men who had been hiding in the parking lot. They fired possibly as many as ten shots at him. At least one of the bullets caught Trapp in the chest.
Andre Trapp, a father of two young children, then ran back toward the court and collapsed in a pool of water on the concrete leading to the steps.
Trapp’s assassins then ran toward the sea front, up Bliss Promenade in the direction of the Bowen and Bowen businesses. One of them escaped; the other was caught by police on the Bliss Promenade stretch behind the Brodie’s warehouse yard.
Police suspect that the two assassins had come to their murder assignment on Regent Street in a green Ford Ranger vehicle with Stann Creek District licence plates. That vehicle was found in the narrow street between the parking lot and Brodie’s hardware section.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, business in the Magistrate’s Court came to an end, and the sessions were not resumed in the afternoon. Court business is expected to be resumed tomorrow, Friday.
Reports to Amandala are that police have in custody three persons, but a police spokesman tonight told us that they only had one person in custody, allegedly the son of a police officer.
The charge of drug possession which drew Trapp out of hiding was in reference to a search conducted on him on March, 26, 2010, in which officers found him with 25 grams of cannabis. The court case was adjourned today until July 19, 2010. Andre Trapp, needless to say, will not appear.
According to witnesses in the courtroom, Trapp, after hearing the news of the adjournment of his case, had walked out calmly.
“He didn’t seem upset or anything; he just left,” a source told us.
A witness who was attending a case at the Supreme Court upstairs told us, “I saw when he [Trapp] ran and collapsed; the water splashed; his head was on the concrete but his body was in the water … I didn’t expect this to happen, at least not here at the court grounds; that’s what made it so terrible for me … makes you feel afraid to even come to court.”
“I didn’t see any of the shooters; we just heard the shots. . . I walked from the veranda [of the supreme court] to look out and when we looked there the guy [Trapp] was coming from the corner. . . and by the time he got ten to fifteen yards, he collapsed right there,” the witness said.
Another witness to the deadly gunfire, a businessman of Regent Street, told Amandala, “ I didn’t really see anything I just heard the bullets start to fly and I didn’t know where it came from I just know bullets were being fired and I ran in the back.”
Trapp was charged with attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm, dangerous harm, and aggravated assault of one Leon Soberanis, 20, which occurred on April, 5, 2004, during a concert at the Belize City Center on the Central American Boulevard. That incident unfolded in the view of over a thousand persons at the concert. Trapp is alleged to have approached Soberanis and stabbed him in the neck with a knife.
Trapp was set free on November, 27, 2006, after the Crown Counsel, Kamar Henry, explained that they were withdrawing their case against him due to lack of evidence.
Trapp’s father, Sigmond Trapp, Sr., a taxi driver of Belize City, told us, “I am very hurt about it. I miss him because I talk to him all the time … it was something that was coming a long time, and I spoke to him about it many times, and I advised him to get away from Belize City, because we knew at the end of the day this would have been the finishing of the whole scenario.”
Trapp, Sr., also said that he, along with Senior Superintendent Chester Williams, has been working tirelessly to keep his now deceased son, Trapp, out of trouble. “ … You know how these young men are; they feel that they are very notorious and they feel to themselves that they can prove themselves within their ranks, so it was something I was prepared for a long time.”
Trapp’s two other brothers, Trevor Trapp and Sigmond Trapp, Jr., recently walked free from a use of deadly means of harm charge, because the witness failed to appear in court. That incident took place on March, 16, 2008, on Rivero Street. The victim, Roni Castellanos, was walking and was allegedly shot in the leg by the accused brothers.
Andre’s father added that the last time he saw his son alive was on Sunday, June 6, 2010: “I passed him on Queen Charlotte right in front of the police station; he was walking. I stopped and we talked and I told him in person to be aware of himself.”
Trapp, who is believed to have been the leader of the Southside gang for many years, had been locked up on Friday, June 4, and released on Monday, June 7, 2010, in connection with the sensational May 31, 2010 shooting of attorney Rodwell Williams, the Prime Minister’s law partner.