by William Ysaguirre

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Oct. 22, 2024

Softball pitching legend Mary Flowers led the BTL women’s softball team to several national championships in the years 2000-2010—and even to win the Central American championship.

Though she has retired from the pitcher’s mound, she continues to play; most recently, she helped her native village team, Double Head Cabbage Unity, to win 2nd place in the Hon. Marconi Leal Softball Marathon in Sandhill Village in July 2022.

Despite her heroic feats on the softball diamond, 48-year-old Mary was forced to confront her mortality when she narrowly escaped death at the hands of a cowardly gunman who targeted her as she left the home of her former partner, Kirk Smith, on Santa Barbara Street in the St. Martin De Porres area of Southside Belize City around 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday night, October 22.

She reported hearing two shots, and a pain in her neck made her realize she had been hit, and she collapsed on the verandah of the home. Her friends immediately rushed her to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where doctors were able to stabilize her condition. Mary is in recovery at an undisclosed location.

Police investigators canvassed the area and found that a bullet had also hit a window of the neighbor’s house next door. They have also reviewed security footage from surveillance cameras in the area, without gaining any useful leads from the video or the neighbors. Witnesses are reluctant to come forward for fear that they may be the gunman’s next target.