Two Dead, One Man Detained, Following Belmopan Market Shooting

A child and a woman from the Agua Viva community, just outside of Belmopan, are dead following a shooting incident inside the Belmopan Market. Forty-year-old Laura Fiorito and her husband Salvatore Lopes were at Paradise Café along with their two children and eight-year-old Megan Klassen, their neighbor’s child, when a gunman attacked them. Both Fiorito and Klassen were fatally wounded. The alleged shooter, fifty-nine-year-old Haitian American, Robert Joseph has since been detained by police. The incident has sent shockwaves across the relatively peaceful Capital City, especially since the incident occurred in broad daylight during one of the market’s busiest days of the week. But why would Joseph want to target this family? He alleges that they tried to poison him. News Five’s Paul Lopez was able to obtain some surveillance footage of Joseph’s initial interaction with the family, before he pulled out a firearm and opened fire. Here is that report.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

This is the moment, fifty-nine-year-old Haitian American National Robert Joseph and his son twenty-two-year-old David Joseph walked up to a couple that were sitting in front of Paradise Café eating up a cup of ice cream. The woman, identified forty-four-year-old Laura Fiorito is heard expressing surprise and excitement, as if seeing a friend for the first time in a long time.  Her common-law husband Salvatore Lopes rose to shake Robert’s hand. She then got up from the bench and shook his hand. They continued to exchange pleasantries and soon after David Joseph walks off. Robert Joseph stayed behind and the couple sat back down. They are heard asking him about some construction work. It was at that moment that Joseph pulled a firearm from his waste and opened fire on the couple. In the process he killed Laura Fiorito. He then turned his weapon on three children that were with them, seven-year-old Tristan Lopes and eleven-year –old Sarah Lopes, the couple’s children, and eight-year-old Megan Klassen, their neighbor’s child. Klassen also lost her life. Ronaldo Logan co-owns the Belmopan Market and Paradise Café. He witnessed the ordeal.

 

Ronaldo Logan, Co-Owner, Belmopan Market

“The couple mih the sit down over there by the table, they get up, sit down, regular lee conversation, the guy ask them unu nuh start build yet. He say, no no, we nuh start build yet. Deh not even raise their voice, deh nuh give nobody like a warning that deh wah do something like that. I nuh know what set off the man, because he just come do that yah, because he had to pass several cameras. We have six cameras, right under the business have three big ones and that is why we keep them exposed so that we could actually see that somebody the sih yo, apart from all the eyes in the market.”

 

The suspect, Robert Joseph owned Super Palm Resort, a small accommodation just outside of Belmopan that was recently transformed into an Airbnb. No one was at the location this morning and most of the doors were left open. Several decks of cards, coins in various currencies and other items were scattered across a table in a living area at the entrance of the building. Reports are that Fiorito and Lopes were living at the Airbnb several months ago, after moving to Belize from the Netherlands.

 

Ronaldo Logan

“After I hear the gunshot, I gawn sih what I can do. Then the guy after he shoot yah, he gawn chase the kids in the playground. While we the exchange, I the try tell the guy mek he hold it down, yo done do foolishness and I mih the curse a lot. I seh, why you come do this dah this establishment, you really mess up a good business that me and my business partner the try keep open.”

 

According to Logan, when the shooter turned his attention to the children, two of them, Tristan Lopes and Megan Klassen ran towards the parking lot where their vehicle was parked. Eleven-year-old Sarah Lopes ran for cover, assisted by a market employee, she hid inside the restroom. In this video, that employee is seen holding on to a wounded and terrified Sarah Lopes. Sarah and her brother, though badly injured would survive the attack. But, eight-year-old Megan Klassen succumbed to the injuries she sustained. We spoke with her uncle.

 

John, Uncle of Megan Klassen

“My brother’s daughter, Megan was picked up by their neighbor, it seems that is the arrangement they had with their neighbors, dropping them off and picking them up. So, their neighbor picked up the children from school yesterday and stopped by this ice-cream place here where supposedly one of their friends met them, handshake the father of the deceased lady, his wife and the two of the children that were shot and Megan who was shot to death. They decided to pass by this place to have a treat for the children. They were playing in the playground when a man they know very well, approached him, handshake him and began to shoot.”

 

A police officer quickly responded to the scene and fired two warning shots in the sky. The suspect then threw his gun to the ground and surrendered himself.

 

Ronaldo Logan

“Lucky enough when he the do all of that and i the cuss ah up the try get ah fih surrender, lucky enough a police guy was in the area and the police guys did a real good job. the hall tell the man i dah the police. When I see him the walk towards me again, I run behind a building and the man throw his firearm and the police come behind and me and my brother in law help apprehend the man, you know.”

 

According to Logan, the shooter was begging him to take his life. The suspect also alleged, while being detained, that the couple he targeted was trying to poison him and his son while they were living at the Airbnb.

 

John

“I cannot say anything on what type of relationship they had, if it is true or not. Anybody can make up stories that they could have poisoned them, but does that give them to right to kill anyone, to kill innocent children, because probably they ate something and he felt bad, that doesn’t make any sense to me. To my knowledge they were a very friendly family and even the man that shot them, they said he was their friend as well. So I have, in my opinion, I do not understand what happened.”

 

Paradise Café were closed for business today. Black bows hung in front of the store in honor of the slain victims. This afternoon, people sat next to the café having lunch seemingly unphased by shooting incident that occurred less than twenty-four hours earlier.

 

Paul Lopez

“How difficult is it for you as an investor who has poured your resources into this business for something like this to happen.”

 

Ronaldo Logan

“I had to say from the get go for me and David from we start, it has been a hard struggle. We gone far and beyond to try and build what paradise is about. It is like sometimes I see people sit down and I always steer with a passion. I said, what was Belmopan before we open this. When I was cursing the guy I tell him mein, if you only know how hard it is to keep these doors open.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.