Paul Panton, 59, was ambushed and executed in his taxi after being called by an unknown person seeking a cab ride.

BELIZE CITY, Fri. June 24, 2022

On Friday morning sometime after 6:00, Paul Panton, 59, a taxi driver who lived in King’s Park in Belize City, was killed in his cab by an unknown assailant who shot him in the back of the head. Prior to his death, Panton had received a call from a still unknown would-be passenger that took him from the Cinderella Plaza Taxi Stand, where he was usually stationed, to Heart Street in the St. Martin’s area. He was found in his vehicle, a white Toyota 4Runner, with a single gunshot wound, after his car reportedly crashed into the fence of a resident of the area.

“It would want to appear that, that person may have boarded the vehicle, in a pretentious state of wanting a cab, and then that person did their execution. We have received several tips so far,” Police Communications Director, ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, said in an interview this afternoon.

He said that the Police Department had come across information indicating that Panton may have been involved in a transaction with an unnamed family member that possibly went awry, and that  might have led to his death.

“We are following some information that he may have been involved in some form of business with a family that is very upset right now. I don’t know if their business went sideways; the information would want to suggest that this is as a result of some form of business that went bad between him and those other parties,” Yearwood noted.

Yearwood further indicated that the police will try to access video footage from the surveillance camera in the area, and hope to get any help they can from eyewitnesses from the area.

Yearwood told reporters, “Whenever an incident occurs, we try to narrow it down so that we can know exactly which cameras to review, and we are hoping that investigation will get some meaningful material from these surveillances. We also rely a lot on eyewitnesses, and we know that on a Friday, 6:30 in the morning, a lot of people will be on their way to work, but we also know that the St. Martin’s area, a lot of people even when they see they would pretend to be blind, so we are asking the general public if you have seen something that would help us to establish who is the orchestrator of this most recent murder to give us a call.”

The victim’s wife of 30 years, Judith Young Panton, stated during a brief interview, that the victim was seeking asylum in the US after being deported 4 years ago. He had been at the US border with Tijuana just three weeks ago when he was sent back to Belize. His wife also said that he had lived in the US for about 30 years, adding that their 6 children, the oldest 32 and youngest 14-years-old, are all devastated by the loss of their father.

“He worked as a cook in a care facility with elderly people, and he always tells me that, oh, the elderly people think he’s very sweet, and I said, oh, they don’t know you at home, but he was a very caring father, he took care of his kids, we had 6 children together. When I’m at work he would pick them up to come home, he would cook; when I get here there will be food for me, he’s a cook. So, he was pretty quiet, so I don’t even think he would have not even one enemy. Why? My question is why?” Panton said.

She also commented that while the family loves their home country, and would want to someday move back home, the crime in Belize is making the paradise into a “hellhole”.

Panton further stated that in their almost daily conversation he commented on the state of crime in the country and what he perceived as inaction by the government to stem the mounting crisis and that this was another reason that he wanted to return to the US to be with his family. He even hinted that he was being threatened, she said.

“My only words are to the government, not even to the police. Belize—I think the government, the prime minister, runs the police department, and I think the police is doing what all they can and what they are taught to do. I think the government is the one that needs to step up and try to figure out what they need to do about these senseless killings and murders. In that way, we as Belizean-Americans can move home and feel safe in our own country,” Panton said.

Police are still investigating Panton’s killing. At this time they are trying to locate his phone and pinpoint the last persons to have made contact with him.