BELIZE DISTRICT, Thurs. July 21, 2022
Police are investigating a fatal shooting that took place off the Old Northern Highway, also known as the Maskall Road, last night sometime after 6 o’clock. Lisandro Martinez, 25, originally from Guinea Grass, died while receiving treatment at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) after being shot by an unknown gunman who was in the passenger seat of a black vehicle. Martinez had asked a co-worker of his — who recently became an acquaintance after Martinez moved to the Boston Village area to do logging work — to give him a ride on his motorcycle to a supermarket at Mile 19 on the highway to buy some groceries after he (Martinez) had finished the first day of his new logging job.
According to the co-worker, an 18-year-old who preferred to be identified only as Jose, after they had gone to the shop, where Martinez spent just a short time purchasing a few items, they began to make their way back to the village, but while they were on that return trip, a black car started to follow them. The vehicle drew close to the motorcycle on which the men were riding, and one of its occupants fired at least four shots, police reported today.
The bullets wounded Martinez in the side of his torso, said Jose, who, according to reports, accelerated the speed at which he had been traveling and sped off to the village as soon as he heard the shots. He became aware that Martinez had been wounded after hearing him shout in pain, and when he arrived in the village, he saw blood on his shirt.
He and other villagers rushed to transport Martinez to the KHMH, but it was too late: the 25-year-old logger passed away as a result of the injuries he received when they entered Ladyville. Jose, the police’s only eyewitness at this time, was fortunately not injured during the attack.
During an off-camera interview today, the family of the victim said that he had not been involved in any recent conflicts with anyone, but that he had a troubled past, and it’s possible that some incident that occurred during that period of his life led to the shooting.
Jose also noted to local reporters that he does not know what could have been the motive for the shooting, since Martinez, having recently moved to Boston Village, did not know anyone in the area.