Two security guards were shot at workplace; one survived
LADYVILLE, Belize District, Mon. June 17, 2019– A female security guard was shot dead while on duty at the Crystal Bottling Company, located on the Bowen and Bowen Ltd. Compound on the Airport Camp Road in Ladyville, at about 4:00 yesterday morning by an unknown person, or persons.
Marcia Talbott, 40, of Double Head Cabbage, Belize District, was shot multiple times in her chest and died almost immediately in her guard booth, while Mansa Baptist, 41, of Bermudian Landing, Belize District, a security guard who was working with her, was shot in his left lower back. He was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted in a critical condition.
Talbott’s body was taken to the morgue.
The killer, or killers, had escaped the way they had come – through the back of the compound.
During the regular police press brief held at the Raccoon Street Police Station, ASP Alejandro Cowo, Commander of Crimes Investigation, said that they were alerted about gunshots in the compound, and when they arrived, they made a forced entry by cutting the padlock on the main gate to the entrance of the compound.
When police went to the guard booth, they saw Talbott, who was already dead, and Baptist was lying on the ground just a short distance from the booth. Police said that after checking the compound, they saw that the offices had not been broken into, and nothing was reported stolen.
Police found that the killers had breached the compound from the back, from the unattended area of the rear of the Belize Defence Force compound. The killers then made their way to the front, to the guard booth, where they shot the two guards.
Police believe that the target was Talbott, and have begun an investigation on many fronts. There was an ongoing issue at work with some workers, and she was the executor of estate for properties left by her late husband, who, at the time of his death, was living with another woman, and she, Talbert, was to attend a civil court hearing in the settlement of the properties.
The Bowen and Bowen Company said that money and valuables are not kept in the offices, and that the guards were unarmed. The company said that at the time there were other guards on the compound, who, as they heard the gunshots, quickly called police.
Reliable reports to us are that Talbott had been receiving threats before she was killed. Cowo said that police have been made aware of these threats, which will also be investigated.
The double shooting on the Bowen and Bowen compound in Ladyville has occurred two weeks after a brutal triple murder was carried out by gunmen who murdered Excelsior High School principal Alarice Andrewin, 44, and her two friends, Vidal Antonio Yuman Cacho, 39, and Maria Delfina Juarez Lucas, 19. The horrendous murders occurred in Andrewin’s room, in her house located at Mile 11 on the George Price Highway.
The victims had all been tied up, and each had been shot in the head during a burglary at the house.
Investigation into the triple murders led to Kyle Zetina, 24, a construction worker of Mahogany Heights, and Shawn Flores, 18, an unemployed resident of Sunset Park. They were arrested and charged with 3 counts of murder. They have since been remanded.