BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 20, 2022– A man was killed by his childhood friend on Good Friday, April 15, in Guinea Grass Village, Orange Walk, after a minor dispute between the victim, identified as 30-year-old Jose Cedillo, and two of his nieces escalated into bloodshed when the common-law husband of one of the two women trailed Cedillo and then shot him in his family’s yard, in front of multiple eyewitnesses.
Reports are that Cedillo went to his nieces’ residence demanding that he be paid $5 that was owed to him, but they stayed inside their homes and locked their doors while he hurled threats before walking off. Reports are that he threatened Daisy Pott, 27, while leaving the yard, and was followed to his home by Nelson Segovia, 27, the alleged killer, who was armed with a firearm.
When Segovia reached the residence, some of Cedillo’s family members were outside, and he threw two rocks at the house. When Cedillo went outside, three shots were fired in his direction, and he was fatally wounded. He was rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Segovia is currently on the lam, according to police, who have since issued a wanted poster for him.
The communications director of the Police Department, ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, told local media that he believes this homicide was premeditated by Segovia, who took the law into his own hands.
“Tempers flare when people believe that they are being threatened. But, in this case, Segovia was not being threatened. He was threatening a woman, Daisy Pott, and Segovia took matters into his own hands. One, he left that yard and went to his own home. The proper thing to have done was to call the police. By you going to that person and aggravating that person, and that person coming out, that had to be premeditated. So, for you to draw that weapon, there is no excuse. I don’t care if that person harasses you a hundred times or someone you love a hundred times, call the police a hundred times. Call them a hundred and one,” Yearwood said.
According to the father of the victim, Jose Cedillo, Sr., the alleged killer is well-known to the family and basically grew up in the yard. He said that he was fixing his motorcycle when the incident took place, and his wife, who also witnessed the killing, was standing at the door when her son was shot and fell to the ground. He rushed his son to the hospital, but by then Jose Cedillo, Jr., had passed away.
During an interview with CTV3 which was done in Spanish but translated into English, the father said, “Now I need a lot of help from the law, because my family and I are without words. I managed to get a pickup to take him to the hospital. I know the man since he was small, and now, he causes a lot of problems. They were friends, because he grew up here at my house. Every day he used to come right here at the front. I never expected that this person would hurt my family and me in this manner, to take the life of my son.”
Police’s investigation of the incident and search for the alleged killer continues.