Photo: (l-r) Christian Espat and Michael Brown, charged
by Charles Gladden
SAN PEDRO TOWN, Ambergris Caye, Thurs. Oct. 26, 2023
Police have now charged Christian Espat and Michael Brown, both residents of San Pedro, who are believed to be responsible for orchestrating a mass shooting on Monday of this week in the San Pedrito area that resulted in the deaths of three persons, including a toddler.
In the wake of the triple fatality, police had begun to circulate “Wanted” posters for Espat’s arrest, but on Thursday, October 26, Espat was reportedly detained by cops at the Belize-Mexico border while re-entering the country. He was then taken to the Corozal Police Station and transported to San Pedro, where he will be held. Meanwhile, his co-accused, Michael Brown, handed himself to San Pedro police in the company of his attorney, Hurl Hamilton, on the day after the incident occurred.
While police have identified the duo as the prime suspects in the murder of the three victims – Delmar Rodriguez, 25; his three-year-old daughter, Amarie Rodriguez; and Carlos Chi of Libertad Village, Corozal District — Espat earlier this week claimed his innocence in an audio recording which was circulated via social media.
“I’m sending this video to the media to clear my name because the police are accusing me of a triple murder I didn’t commit!” Espat professed. “The reason I’m not on the island at this moment is because last week Thursday, the police tortured, [and] threatened me to the point that I no longer could take the pain … I don’t know why they’re accusing me of this triple murder, because I know I didn’t have any misunderstanding and no problem with the Delmar Rodriguez. I never threatened him nor his family, worse, had any drug-related conflict with him,” he continued.
Espat, who was reportedly a close associate of Rodriguez and his family, further claimed that he was not in the country when the murder occurred, as he had sought medical attention in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico, in an attempt to find out whether permanent damage was done to his brain as a result of beatings which he alleges he suffered while in police custody the week before.
He pointed to medical documents that indicate that he was at the doctor on the day of the San Pedro shooting, which took place at about midnight while Rodriguez had been heading home in a golf cart. (There are reports that possibly up to 60 rounds were fired from what some sources are saying were automatic rifles.) However, while the alibi would initially appear to be credible, Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams has indicated that he is not convinced, and he challenged Espat earlier this week, when speaking to a local media outlet, to hand himself into authorities.
While Espat’s alibi seems convincing, some sources are alleging that the shooting was drug-related and that Rodriguez became a target because he accessed a portion of a “wet drop” that had not been equally shared with Espat. However, some of Rodriguez’s family members are also claiming that he was killed because he had been cooperating with police and providing information that could have incriminated certain persons, including, reportedly, Espat.
A deeper dive into our Amandala archives showed that Christian Espat has earned a reputation as one of the island’s most notorious alleged killers.
In 2017, he was a suspect who was facing possible attempted murder charges in connection with injuries that were inflicted on three persons, including two school children. Then in 2019, he was accused of the double murder of American tourist, Dr. Gary Swank and local tour guide Mario Graniel while they were out at sea; and in May of this year, he was accused of the murder of businesswoman Mirsa Moralez of the Cayo District, who had been Graniel’s common-law wife; but when he surrendered himself to police for those crimes, he was later released from police custody.
As of this evening, Amandala has confirmed that Michael Brown and Christian Espat have both been charged with multiple offenses – three counts of attempted murder, three counts of murder, and three counts of use of deadly means of harm.