Photo: (l-r) Emerson Garcia, Charleston Jenkins and Jareem Davis, victims of triple murder
Police believe the calculated attack may have been drug-related
by Marco Lopez
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Nov. 21, 2022
Three male residents of Sandhill Village were murdered last Thursday sometime after 10:00 p.m. Police believe the execution-style hit may have been drug-related, and that the two young victims may have been casualties of a dispute in which they had not been involved. Emerson Garcia, 43, is the oldest victim and had lived in the elevated yellow wooden house where the attack took place. According to police, marijuana sales used to take place at the home. Jaheem Davis, a 20-year-old who recently moved into the village, according to his father, was also shot dead during the attack, and a 19-year-old, Charleston Jenkins, was the third victim of the fatal shooting.
The shots which were fired inside the Mile 19 residence of Garcia were heard by residents across the village. The first person who came across the bodies of the men shortly after the incident was Jennifer Augustine, the grandmother of one of the deceased, Charleston Jenkins. She recounted that she went for some cigarettes at the Garcia residence, but all her calls went unanswered.
When she finally decided to go into the house, she saw the three men on the ground, and initially thought they were sleeping, but when she took a closer look at the three bodies, she found that they were covered in blood, and after seeing her grandson, she realized that something terrible had happened and called for the neighbors.
Police arrived on the scene around 10:35 p.m., and according to a report from the Police Department, the officers found the three men motionless with apparent gunshot wounds to the body. The victims, all residents of Sandhill Village, were identified by family members and transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), where they were pronounced dead.
While police have not determined the motive for the shooting, they are considering the possibility that it was a drug-related incident, due to reports that marijuana was sold at the home. Police also believe that two of the victims, Davis and Jenkins, who had been hanging out at Garcia’s home when the assailants arrived and carried out their deadly attack, were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Jenkins’ brother said that he learned of his brother’s death the next morning, and that their grandmother was the person who found the dead men. He said that his brother was a kind and jovial person, whose social interaction was mostly limited to social media, and that Davis, who was one of his closest friends, was one of the few persons he socialized with.
“Just shocking, man, cause my lee breda nuh mess with nobody. My lee breda da wa outgoing person, always di smile, always willing fi help,” he said. He also said that his brother had just gotten a job and was supposed to start working.
“He like social media and thing. In nuh really deh out deh di hang out with nobody or nothing like that. The only person weh ih heng out with da Jareem Davis, and that da ih close friend. “
Davis recently moved into the Sandhill area, according to his father, who said that his son grew up in a church-going family, and as far he knows, he was not involved in any illegal or gang activity. He had been scheduled to go to work at the fire station that night but never made it to his post.
Garcia is remembered as a loving and kind person. He leaves behind two children.
Police are looking for suspects from within Sandhill Village, but have so far not reported any arrests in connection with the incident.