DOUBLE HEAD CABBAGE, Belize District, Mon. Apr. 8, 2019– Percival Flowers, Jr., 38, a laborer and a well-known sportsman of Double Head Cabbage, drowned in the Belize River while swimming with his friends at about 2:30 Tuesday afternoon. His body was recovered at about 5:30 that same evening.
Reliable information to us is that Flowers and his three friends went to the popular swimming area at the Belize River in Double Head Cabbage known as Nurses Lounge, where they climbed a tree that was near the river, from which they jumped into the water.
Flowers, however, in his jump, made a back-flip and went down into the water. His friends said that he resurfaced briefly and he went down again. They began to get worried when after a while he did not resurface, and they began to search for him.
They raised the alarm and some residents of the area went to the river and also began to look for him. He was found by his friends about three hours later at the bottom of the river in the general area where he went down.
On News5 Live, his sister Kimberly Flowers said that they believe that when he did the back-flip, he injured his neck, or his back. They are awaiting the post-mortem exam results.
Flowers said that the men in the village cut down the tree because they do not want anyone else to die as a result of climbing and jumping off it into the river, and also the sight of the tree sadden them. She said that just before her brother did the back-flip, his friends tried to warn him not to do so, but he still did it.
Flowers was buried in the village on Sunday after a wake on Saturday. He was the father of one child.