_{Francisco Melendez, deceased}

by Charles Gladden

ORANGE WALK, Wed. May 14, 2025

A 52-year-old man from Trial Farm Village, Orange Walk District, was killed on Saturday night, May 10, when an SUV hit the rear end of the bicycle he was riding.

According to police, the incident occurred sometime around 9:00 p.m. on West San Martin Road. The police report indicated that the victim, Francisco Melendez, was seen lying on the pavement when officers arrived at the scene shortly after an SUV being driven by 43-year-old Anastacio Bermudez of Trial Farm hit his bicycle and damaged its front and rear wheels.

Melendez sustained a large cut wound to the face, a broken left leg, and a cut wound to the right temple, and the back of his head.

“I was at home, just relaxing, and when my older sister called me and told me the news, it was shocking. It was unbelievable,” said Arnoldo Gonzalez, Melendez’s son. “I had seen my father a few minutes before the incident. I spoke with him and told him to go home, take care, and he said likewise. He told me to take care because you’re on a cycle, and I told him the same, ‘Dad, I’ll see you tomorrow.’ It was hard to see him just gone, taken away from us. It is unexplainable, unimaginable pain. My family is taking it very hard at this moment,” he said.

According to Gonzalez, during that last conversation with his father, Melendez had said he had stopped by to give his mother a Mother’s Day gift, and said he thought about retiring so his children could provide for him.

Gonzalez said that the family is getting little information about the case from the police, and that the little information that they have received was inaccurate.

“When my sister and I went into the police station on Sunday morning to make a report, they said my dad had a white shirt, which was not true; he had an olive-green t-shirt. They were saying that my dad was on a yellow beach cruiser bicycle, which was not the case; he had a black bicycle, which was on the mobile that took his body to the morgue, and that shocks me and makes me think of the level of incompetence of the department itself. It makes me think that we cannot trust,” he said.

Melendez’s body was taken to the Northern Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, after which his remains were taken to the morgue, where a post-mortem will be carried out.

Bermudez surrendered himself at the Orange Walk Police Station, where samples of his body fluids were obtained, and he was charged with three counts of manslaughter and driving a motor vehicle without due care and negligence.

He is expected to appear in court on July 11.