Domestic worker Phillipa Longsworth, 60, is mourning the shooting death of Earl “Old Man” Figueroa, 29, her second son to die violently. Earl’s younger brother, Edward “Bones” Figueroa, 20, was stabbed to death almost 7 years ago, on July 4, 1999. The incident occurred on Curassow Street, not far from his home.
Earl and Edward were Phillippa’s only sons in Belize.
Earl was fatally shot in the left side of his chest about 11:30 p.m. on Friday, April 13. Police reports are that two tourism police officers who were on bicycle patrol in the Southern Foreshore area were alerted to the sounds of two gunshots. They followed the direction from which the sounds came, and found themselves at the corner of South Street and Southern Foreshore, where they saw Earl in a crouched position in the drain, apparently dead. Earl Figueroa was taken to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The police reported that two men on bicycles were seen fleeing from the area shortly after the shooting. But although one person has been detained for questioning, no arrest has been made in connection with the incident.
Earl, described by friends and relatives as being mentally challenged, presumably because of a bullet that became lodged in his head about two years ago, was at the home of two of his friends who had come from Los Angeles for the Easter holidays. He borrowed a bicycle belonging to a friend, Herman “Yagga” Morris, reports say, to look for his girlfriend. He never returned.
Phillipa is still puzzled as to why Earl was killed. She admitted that he sometimes gave her trouble, but said that he was not the kind of person who was regularly involved with the law, and he was not affiliated with any gang or had any “beef” with anyone, as far as she was aware.
“Whatever my son was, I don’t think he deserved what happened to him, and I hope that whoever is responsible for his death will be brought to justice,” she said.
She added that she was not aware that Earl was dead until around 5:00 on Saturday morning, April 14, when she was on Central American Boulevard waiting for a bus to take her to her work in the Belama Phase 2 area.
She said that it was Morris who approached her and told her that Earl was in the morgue, dead from a gunshot.
Phillipa returned home and when she checked Earl’s room, downstairs her house at #50 Gibnut Street, she found the padlock on the front door, but a window at the back was open. She checked further, she said, and discovered that Earl’s room had been burglarized and a number of new clothes and footwear that were given to him by his friends from California had been stolen.
In the fatal stabbing of Edward “Bones” Figueroa, on Wednesday, March 14, 2001, Sidney Neal, who was charged with Edward’s murder, was found guilty of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 20 years.
A post-mortem of Earl’s body is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, April 17.
Phillipa’s last son, Noel “Pio” Johnson, 41, who lives in the States.