The Chinese business community is demonstrating that they will no longer be easy targets and pushovers for would-be robbers – regardless of whether the robbers are armed.
Last Saturday night, May 30, two men attempted to rob a Chinese shop on the Northside of the city, but things went awry for the would-be robbers.
According to police, around 9:05 p.m., they were called to Tong’s Supermarket, located at #28 Baymen Avenue, where they found Richard Flores, 19, lying face-up. Flores had been shot in the back of his head and apparently had died on the spot.
The official police report states that three Chinese, along with an employee, were at the business establishment when two men entered the store. One of them, armed “with what appeared to be a 9 mm pistol”, pointed the gun at the head of one of the Chinese “victims” and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun snapped. The report states that “A struggle ensued between both men during which the victim pulled out his licensed revolver and fired at the robber, fatally injuring him.”
At the same time, said the report, the other robber took an undisclosed sum of money from the cash register, but was swiftly apprehended by an “alert” police officer who was within the immediate area and decided to intervene. The surviving robber, who was identified as Anthony Major, 33, of #3 Majestic Alley, Belize City, has been detained pending charges. A 9mm pistol without serial number with a magazine containing four live rounds was found; police also recovered cash, which “was deposited as exhibit.”
Anthony Major, who has a number of criminal cases pending in the Magistrate’s courts, appeared in the #7 Magistrate’s Court this morning, where he pleaded not guilty to one count of robbery. He was remanded to the Hattieville Prison until his next court appearance on July 1, 2009.
The deceased would-be robber, Richard Flores, is not a stranger to the media. Last year he was accused of tossing a highly lethal British-made hand grenade, the L109, into a crowd of carnival onlookers near the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
In an interview with Flores’ family this morning, his mother, Gaylia Flashy, 47, told Amandala that she last saw her son on Saturday afternoon.
“Earlier he carried some plants for me by Brodies, where I sell plants. He asked me for two
dollars after I had finished with a customer. After he dropped off the plants, he returned home and changed his clothes. Then he went back out. I never saw him again.”
Flashy said that the police have not contacted her yet regarding the death of her son.
Asked how she learned that her son had been shot and killed, Flashy said that a young man
came to her Dean Street home and told them.
According to Jonathan, a brother of Richard, the young man asked him if he knew where Richie was.
“When he told me that my brother was dead, I was in shock,” Jonathan said.
“I asked him how my brother had died, and he told me that a Chinese man shot him. I was left
in shock.”
Flashy told Amandala that her son would have turned twenty years old on the 10th of June.
Richard Flores was released on bail on December 22, 2008, in connection with his grenade case, his mother said. On May 26, he went to get his disclosure, but he was unable to get it and was told to return.