BELIZE CITY, Mon. Dec. 13, 2021– A family of five from the Krooman area in Belize City is homeless after their home was burnt to the ground on Sunday night. Reports are that two brothers who were very intoxicated started to fight at a small shop in the area, and when the store owner asked them to leave her premises, they turned on her, clubbing her in the forehead with a stick.
The woman, since identified as Violeta Singh, told local media that, after attacking her, the men turned on her husband when he approached them, and then on her brother-in-law, who was also attacked during the altercation. She said that at one point more than 6 men were in her yard fighting. The family retreated to the inside of their home, where they called the police.
The men then attacked an elderly woman, Singh’s mother-in-law, whom they reportedly hit in the head and knees. According to her family, she is in a bad condition at this time.
When police arrived on the scene, they took the victims, who had also sustained injuries during the brawl, to the hospital. They currently have in custody several persons believed to have been involved in this attack pending charges. It has been reported, however, that while the family was at the hospital, a first attempt was made to burn their home, and they called the police, who came to spot-check the area, then left.
The second attempt to set the fire, however, was successful. The family’s home and all their belongings were destroyed by that blaze. Singh told local media that she had intended to move to another location after coming out of the hospital that night, but they were too late. By the time they arrived on the scene, their life’s work was up in smoke.
She lived at the house with her husband and three children, ages 15, 11, and 2 years old.
While being interviewed by local reporters, Singh claimed that the men who carried out the attack are from the area and, according to her, they are members of the MS-13 gang which is infamous in the Central American countries which are our neighbors. While the Police Department’s communication director, Fitzroy Yearwood, could not say definitively if this was the case, he said that one of the persons in question was charged previously for gang affiliation.
This area of Krooman Lagoon is known to be occupied by a vast number of migrants from other Central American countries who are living in Belize. Yearwood believes that if elements from the MS-13 gang and the 18th Street gang are now residing in close proximity to each other, there might be increased tensions in the area.
“If you know this area that we are talking about is an area where we have a lot of squatters from other Central American countries, and we all know that from the time the Mara Salvatrucha and the Honduran gang the 18th Street gang, have been enemies, so if they have settled in that area too close to each other, I wouldn’t know, but it would be an angle that the police will be looking at,” ASP Fitzroy Yearwood shared.
A release issued late this evening by police identify the victims as Imelda Rodriguez Vda de Quijada, Rolando Itza, the elderly woman, 30-year-old, Violeta Singh, 32-year-old, and Freddy Itza, a 32-year-old. Hilberto Ruiz, one of the brothers who started the altercation arrived at the KHMH with an injury to his forehead. The other brother is identified as Angel Ruiz.