By Charles Gladden
SAN IGNACIO TOWN, Cayo District, Wed. May. 4, 2022
A teenage football player who was a member of the World FC team in Cayo was brutally stabbed multiple times with a knife by the caretaker of the Norman Broaster Stadium in the Welcome Center area in San Ignacio Town, Cayo District, on Tuesday, May 3, after being told by the caretaker that he had to pay a fee to practice in the stadium.
According to initial reports, the victim, Chris Rodriguez, 19 (who later died of his injuries), and his 17-year-old cousin were playing football at the stadium when they were approached by the stadium’s caretaker, Fausto Teck, who asked them if they had purchased tickets to be in the facility—following a recently implemented requirement that football teams pay a fee for a day of practice at the stadium. Rodriguez and his cousin both answered no and then were asked to leave the premises.
Ultimately, the young men decided to leave, but while they were exiting the field, they met Teck standing by the steps, and according to Carlos Rodriquez, the uncle of the victim, Teck told the two teens “that he’s the one that owns that field, and if he wants, he could make them come back, but if he wants, he could make them never come back in that stadium.” It has been reported that at that point Teck was approached by Rodriguez, which led to an argument between Teck and the two teens that escalated into a physical altercation, during which Teck stabbed Rodriguez multiple times in the neck and body.
Rodriguez was taken to the San Ignacio Community Hospital and later to the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan, where he passed away at around 1:15 a.m. on Wednesday, May 4.
Manuel Rodriguez, the father of Chris, told local media that he was training horses when he received a telephone call from someone who informed him that his son had been stabbed.
“I was shocked [and] surprised for [them] calling me for something like that, because I know Chris is not a troublemaker. Chris avoids trouble. If you tell Chris something, he’ll walk away, and for him to get stabbed, something had to [go] wrong or spark up Chris to react [and] a fight to occur. I would never imagine I would get a call like that that Chris got stabbed, to be honest with you,” he said.
It is not the first time that the father has had to deal with a tragedy of this nature. The father became a widower after Daisy Miralda, the mother of his now deceased son, who was his common-law wife at the time, and her sister were killed by someone with whom her sister had been in a common-law relationship.
In 2016, Chris Rodriguez’s mother, Daisy Miralda, 29, and his aunt, Miriam Mai, 39, were brutally murdered inside Mai’s business, Betty’s Beauty Salon, in San Ignacio Town by Andy Bustillos, 31, Mai’s ex- common-law husband. According to archive reports, Bustillos offered Mai a gift in an attempt at reconciliation; however, Mai rejected the offering. Bustillos then pulled out a pistol and fired a single gunshot at her, then turned to Miralda, who tried to intervene, and fired another single gunshot in the direction of her forehead.
According to Manuel Rodriguez, who was left to raise his children alone, his son, Chris, had continued to be an exemplary son and student, despite the tragic loss—something that made the single father proud.
“It was rough for me as well, living with your common-law [wife] and they take your common-law [wife] away from you and the kids are much smaller and then you have to raise [them] as a single father. You hear a lot about single mothers, but people don’t look at great fathers, like [me], to move on with their kids. I admire my kids. They struggled. Chris was a bit older; he took it I would say as a mature guy…. He probably was hurt on the inside, but he had a strong mind and strong heart to finish school, and I’m proud of him. He did great in school. I told him from the beginning, ‘I’m proud of you, son! You did it on your own,’ because I was out working and he did it on his own, and I applaud Chris for that. And he had a dream to become a great football player, and he was chasing his dream, but it was cut short very quickly. They didn’t give him time to achieve his goal,” said the grieving father.
The uncle of Chris Rodriguez, Carlos Rodriguez, said that his 17-year-old son, who was with Chris at the time of the stabbing, is “[[much] traumatized.” “He doesn’t want to come out [of] the house and he’s crying. I’m trying to talk to him [but] he doesn’t want to hear anything because he blames himself. Maybe he could’ve done something. But I said maybe if he tried to intervene maybe he would’ve been the one to get stabbed because he [the caretaker of the stadium] is a big guy. This is what happened and he’s [much] traumatized,” he said.
In addition to the heartbroken relatives of Chris Rodriguez, the members of the World FC team in Cayo to which Chris Rodriguez belonged are also grieving.
The head coach of the team, Javier Habet, told local reporters. “I really don’t have the words to express how I feel right now, but I’m really sad, and I think the whole community feel this one. I just don’t have the words to say it right now, but this was a promising, talented, young fellow and it’s just senseless how they took away the man’s life, and I just feel emotional already. I just can’t right now.”
“He was, I don’t want to say one of the best, but he was in the top three positions in the whole team. His position was a centre back defensive player, and he was pretty much one of the best for the entire tournament. Last season, he was the MVP with the defence. He got the best defence last tournament. That says a lot about his talent, and he as young, a 19-year-old, so much talent ahead of him,” Habet further said.
The fatal stabbing of the teenager is being seen as particularly troubling, not only because an exemplary teen who had already suffered from personal tragedy was killed, but also because of the senseless nature of the circumstances that led to the stabbing—a recently implemented fee system that many youths and athletes were unaware of, and to which even the divided San Ignacio/Santa Elena Town Council had unitedly objected.
“I can understand this stadium being used for a tournament and you will charge the committee to use the stadium because we are charging to come in, I can see that, but at least leave it open for the youths to train and we go from there!” stated Earl Trapp, the mayor of San Ignacio and Santa Elena.
One of the members of the town council headed by Trapp, Matthew Preston, further explained, “I’ve been trying to get in contact with the Minister of Sports, and hopefully they can get a meeting with the Town Council with the National Sports Council, with the Minister of Sports, so we can see what we can do to remedy this, because again we barely have facilities here in San Ignacio and Santa Elena, and where are the kids gonna play.”
Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, later told the media that in fact Rodriguez should not have been told to pay a fee, since only teams, and not individual players, are being charged for the use of the stadium at this time.
“It’s very unfortunate, and I want to offer my condolences to the family. A young man’s life was cut short. He was only 20-years-old, and I don’t know the intricacies of what is being charged, but I spoke to the director this morning when I came in, and he told me that it’s a charge per team… When I checked with the sports director he told me that nothing was needed. Only teams when they come in they pay a $15 fine to use the stadium for the day. So, I guess it just transpired and then the end result was really devastating,” Minister Ferguson said.
The Sports Minister further noted, “…it’s the reality; you can’t change it, but as the Sports Council, we have to do things differently. I have to put rules and regulations in place to have them understand what is the protocol as a caretaker and what you’re supposed to do, and, this, I don’t know.”
A statement released by police today confirmed that 20-year-old Fausto Teck, a Belizean caretaker who resides in San Ignacio Town, was formally arrested and charged for the crime of murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of Chris Rodriguez that occurred on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.