BELIZE CITY, Fri. Dec. 18, 2020– The circumstances which led to the fatal shooting yesterday of Augustine Coc, 28, a forklift driver of Hualze Street, Belize City, are still not known, and police have not yet identified a suspect.
At about 7:00 p.m., gunshots, which initially were thought to be exploding firecrackers, were heard on Partridge Street, and no one thought anything of it until a man was seen lying on the ground, with almost half his body on the sidewalk and his head on the street.
Crimes Investigation Branch officers from the Precinct Two Police Station arrived on the scene to find an already deceased Coc. There were multiple gunshot wounds to his face and head.
Shortly before 7:00 p.m., Coc was walking on Partridge Street in the direction of Vernon Street, when a dark-complexioned gunman wearing a face mask ran behind him, pointed a firearm at the back of his head and shot him several times.
Superintendent Alejandro Cowo, Head of CIB Belize City, says that this murder is suspected to be a case of “wrong place, wrong time.”
“The motive so far has not been established, but I can tell you that Mr. Coc has not had any encounter with the authorities and he does not appear in our records, none at all. We know that he is a hard-working person and probably, that he had nothing to do with issues happening in that area at this moment,” Cowo said.
Coc’s mother Agloria Teul, was beside herself with grief, and could not understand why he was targeted, stating, “I didn’t expect this to happen to my son, because he goes from work to home, and from home to work, and I always talk to him … my son doesn’t bother no one. It’s very hard for me.”
“Augustine grew up in Camalote Village. He found his girlfriend from St. George’s Caye and they met each other when he was sixteen years old; they started to live life, and that’s why he ended up here in Belize City. I raised him as a single mother for 15 years, and I didn’t expect this for my son,” she said.
Coc was the breadwinner for his family and leaves behind his common-law wife to be the sole caretaker of their two children.