Simone Biles, the Belizean-American gymnastics icon, has added another remarkable accomplishment to her illustrious career. On Thursday, Biles was named Sports Illustrated 2024 Sportsperson of the Year. Her journey from humble beginnings to global superstardom has broken barriers in terms of race, age, and mental health advocacy, said the magazine.
This prestigious recognition comes after her triumphant return to the Olympics in Paris, where she not only overcame personal challenges but also solidified her place as one of the greatest athletes in history.The 11-time Olympic medallist added four new medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, including three golds and a silver. This made her one of the most decorated female gymnasts in history.
Sports Illustrated praised Biles for her stellar performances and her impact on the sport, writing, “She changed the face of her sport and the conversations around athletes.” Biles will receive the award at Sports Illustrated’s annual ceremony in Las Vegas on January 7.
A young woman and man are lucky to be alive today after they were involved in an accident reportedly caused by a taxi driver.
The incident happened near the corner of the Philip Goldson Highway and Captain Eily Street in Belize City. According to reports, the duo was travelling on a motorcycle northbound when a taxi was attempting to overtake them. Lacking sufficient space, the taxi driver grazed the cycle, causing them to momentarily lose balance.
The taxi driver then stopped quickly, causing the cycle to crash into its rear. The duo was sent flying. They sustained minor injuries. Police were called to the scene.
San Pedro resident Alex Wade has come forward with serious allegations of police brutality, claiming he was assaulted by four police officers while in custody. He says the assault resulted in multiple injuries, including a fractured elbow. According to Wade, the incident occurred earlier after he was detained for a public altercation in San Pedro Town.
“I was chilling outside of right here at Centavos at the roadside and a guy passed and messed with me, but he threw a stone, right? And I threw a stone back to him and he went and called the police and they come, ker us da the station and thing, put me in the cell”
He alleges that after requesting a phone call, which was denied, and using obscene language toward an officer, he was attacked in his cell.
“Two of them came in and they started beating me and I think I tried to defend myself. I shoved one of them off and he went out and he came in back with a metal level. That is when he lashed me about like four times on my elbow. Fractured my elbow.”
Wade says he plans to press charges and take legal action against the officers involved.
Relatively moist and unstable conditions continue to affect the country, resulting in a forecast of cloudy spells with a few showers or periods of rain primarily along the coast today and over southern areas tonight.
Marine Conditions
Marine activities should note winds from the north-northeast at 5-15 knots, with moderate seas and wave heights ranging between 4 to 6 feet.
Outlook
For Saturday and Saturday night, expect cloudy spells with occasional showers focused over southern areas.
Temperature Forecast
Coastal Areas: Highs of 80°F (27°C) and lows of 72°F (23°C).
Inland Areas: Highs of 82°F (28°C) and lows of 68°F (20°C).
Hills: Highs of 70°F (21°C) and lows of 63°F (17°C).
Astronomical Conditions
Tides:
Low tide at 6:51 AM and 6:18 PM today.
High tide at 12:57 PM today and 12:25 AM tomorrow.
Sunrise and Sunset: The sun rises at 6:23 AM and sets at 5:30 PM.
Moonrise and Moonset: The moon rises at 9:29 AM and sets at 9:19 PM.
Stay prepared and plan your day accordingly to avoid being caught off guard by the showers.
2025 has just begun, and already several Belize City residents have been hospitalized due to gunshot injuries, including a four-year-old girl. Just after midnight on January first, the little girl was watching fireworks with her family on Levi Slusher Street when she suddenly felt a pain in her arm. At first, her family thought a stray stone had hit her, but an x-ray revealed the shocking truth: she had been struck by a bullet. Thankfully, she is expected to make a full recovery, but the incident has left her family traumatized and the community deeply shaken. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with more details.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
On Wednesday, as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day, Belize was alive with the sounds of fireworks and dynamite. The dazzling lights and booming sounds are a beloved tradition for families, friends, and communities to welcome the new year. However, this celebration can quickly turn dangerous, as the sound of dynamite is almost indistinguishable from gunshots. One Belize City family experienced this firsthand when their four-year-old daughter was struck by a bullet while watching the fireworks. The girl’s mother shared the harrowing details of this terrifying incident.
Voice of: Mother of Shooting Victim
Voice of: Mother of Shooting Victim
“ Two minutes after our firework show finished, her hand was up and I bring it down and she da like mommy, I get hurt. When she say, Mommy, I got hurt, I look, but it’s like a cut, it almost look like it was open. So I yell for my brother and I tell her, da weh happened, the baby get hurt. He say, that probably a stone, got in there weh fly off of the street or the fireworks. So my second brother come and he check it, the neighbors surrounded me and the baby and look at it. So he run upstairs, get the cloth tie it and then I noticed they have a big object inside of her hand. So I mi di hold down weh part the object and mek it no move and fold her hand and we left to the hospital.”
At the hospital, the family made the horrifying discovery that their little girl had been injured by a bullet. Thankfully, doctors were able to remove the bullet from her arm. While the mother is deeply traumatized by the incident, she is doing her best to stay strong for her daughter. Remarkably, the child didn’t cry during the ordeal and is now recovering well, according to her mother.
Voice of: Mother of Shooting Victim
“ She has cerebral palsy, so she can’t walk. So most of the time she sleeps, and when she wakes, I don’t know if she’s traumatized, she keeps asking, like, when is my home going to get better? And question, why did the man hurt me? And those questions got me very emotional because explaining to her that she got a gun wound in her hand, it’s rough. Because it keeps replaying and she keeps questioning it.”
After the bullet was removed, the family headed to the police station to file a formal report. The mother claims they spent over three hours there with her daughter. During the interview, she alleges that the officers were hostile and initially didn’t believe her story.
Voice of: Mother of Shooting Victim
“She started to interrogate me and the way how I process it, the questions and doing her job, right? I let her ask her question, but the way she was stating it, because many of my family member has license gun. And my brothers have license gun as well, but she was trying to let me confess that my brother probably pulled out his firearm and make shots in the air. But before that, I request if they can test bullet to see what gun it comes from to see which gun it come from, because I even wanted to know what kind of bullet it was when I was at the hospital, I asked, but the inspector couldn’t tell. So he said, leave it up to the professionals. And I agree, but then it, during the interrogation, the officer was stiff, but I keep to my words, but she would want, she wanted me to switch. But how can I switch when I’m telling the truth?”
While the child is on the mend, many questions remain unanswered. The family is still in the dark about where the bullet came from, leaving them with a sense of unease and uncertainty.
Britney Gordon
“Do you have any idea where this stray bullet might have come from?”
Voice of: Mother of Shooting Victim
“ No ma’am. No idea. You couldn’t detect or determine if or from a right, left anyway. Because it’s hard for you to determine whether it was fireworks Big dynamite or gunshot or stone because it was literally twelve o’clock when everyone was losing out their stuff.”
In the early hours of New Year’s Day, three men had a close call with a gunman but were lucky to escape with their lives. Around three a.m., eighteen-year-old Anwar Smith from Cet Site, twenty-two-year-old Jody Ortiz from Western Pines, and Dennis Aranda were hanging out in a yard on Linda Vista Street in Belize City when a white vehicle approached from La Croix Boulevard. Suddenly, a gunman opened fire on the group. The men were rushed to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for treatment, but remarkably, they only sustained minor injuries as the bullets had merely grazed them. Police are still investigating the incident.
On Wednesday, a twenty-one-year-old Belize City resident became the fourth person injured in a New Year’s Day shooting. Around 4:30 a.m., Shemar Gillett was walking home when a vehicle stopped at the corner of Gibnut Street and Marigold Alley, and shots were fired from inside. Gillett was hit in his left arm and rushed to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for treatment. We spoke with Gillett earlier today, and he informed us that his arm is recovering well and has already regained movement. Interestingly, Gillett was involved in another shooting incident in 2022, but as the alleged shooter. Reports indicate that gunshots were fired at the corner of Gibnut and Curassow Street, causing damage to two vehicles. Police believe Anthony Parham was the intended target of that incident. The investigation into the 2025 shooting is ongoing.
The crime and police statistics for 2024 are still being finalized and won’t be released until next week. However, if our records are accurate, the murder count for the past year remained in double digits. This marks the second consecutive year that homicides stayed below the one-hundred mark, closely following 2023’s figure of eighty-seven. News Five’s indicate that the murder count for 2024 was ninety-one, though this number could differ from the police department’s official tally next week. When it comes to fatal traffic accidents, which are a major concern, we expect the numbers to be high for 2024, given the frequent fatal motorcycle accidents. At the last House Meeting about three weeks ago, Prime Minister John Briceño mentioned that a significantly high number of drivers were charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in 2024. He also stated that the Attorney General’s ministry is working on a strategic revamp of the penalties for this serious offense.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“I’m told that so far this year, up to November, we have arrested two hundred and one persons for Driving Under the Influence. It is also a fact that much more needs to be done. That’s nowhere close to what we have to do, but the prevalence and frequency of losing so many Belizean lives, especially our young people – promising young Belizeans – warrants immediate attention and action. In this regard, Cabinet has directed the Attorney General to commence a comprehensive review of road-safety laws and regulations, particularly offences dealing with driving under the influence, with a view to make it a serious deterrent for anyone who considers drinking and taking the wheel.”
A few weeks ago, residents of Caye Caulker voiced their concerns about a proposed fuel station and convenience store near the Split at the northern end of the island. Many of the property owners, mostly expats, are worried about the potential environmental impact of the project. They also claim they were never consulted by Petrol Alliance Group Holding Company Limited, the company planning to build the depot. In late December, Mark Leslie and his business partner, Elvis Landaverry, addressed these concerns to ease the residents’ fears. The Petrol Alliance Group owns lots 957 and 2016 on the leeward side of Caye Caulker. Earlier today, News Five spoke with Mark Leslie, a director of the San Ignacio-based company, to get more details.
On the phone: Mark Leslie
On the phone: Mark Leslie, Director, Petrol Alliance Group Holdings
“We are planning to build a fuel station there. We have done major research before even going into this project and we actually went ahead and applied for all our clearances and every other thing with the department as well, all the governmental departments that were necessary, inclusive of the Department of the Environment. We have received environmental clearance from the department and like with all environmental clearances, they give you an environmental compliance plan which we must adhere to and inclusive in that compliance plan are things like mitigation schedules and whatever-have-you that would ensure, one: public safety, two: environmental safety. In all due respect, we did speak to most people before we went in there. I have unlimited supporting letters from the residents of Caye Caulker and we did go speak to a lot of them and we still are continuing to get support letters from people. Now when we applied through the village council, I believe it was maybe something that the village council should have mentioned to us, I am not trying to put down anybody, okay, but it was not something to say that we would have a public forum. If there was something where the Caye Caulker Village Council or anybody would have advised us that a public forum is or would be necessary, it is something that we would gladly do, even if it means sitting at the village council, their office or wherever they choose and then maybe have some sort of public interview and we may do questions and answers.”
Concerned neighbors also brought up the issue of insurance, worried that the proximity and nature of the development would make it difficult for them to get coverage for their properties. However, Leslie reassured them, saying he met with all seven local insurance providers, and none of them had any objections to insuring properties near the proposed fuel depot site.
On the phone: Mark Leslie
On the phone: Mark Leslie, Director, Petrol Alliance Group Holdings
“Throughout the entire country of Belize, we only have seven providers and I contacted and reached out to them and each of the individuals that I spoke to within those organizations had mentioned to me that there is no issue with them issuing insurance to anybody, especially, and I, of course, gave them the area and I told them about the project and they again reassured me that that should not be an issue. The worst case scenario, from my understanding is, and I am not saying that that location is, however, the worst case scenario would be that they would take it on a one-on-one basis and maybe go and inspect wherever they were if it was in an industrial area or some place that they would consider hazardous, and they would still try to give that person insurance. I’m not, again, categorically, I am not saying that our location is, I am just saying that this is an overall policy from the companies. They would still try to give you insurance, what may be affected if they considered or deemed some place hazardous or a heavy industrial zone is that they may look at either higher premiums or higher deductibles, but it would not be denying anybody insurance coverage. I also went to the higher authorities, which is, I believe, the insurance secretary of the country of Belize and their offices also told me that should any one of the seven deny insurance to anybody that that person or individual or group or entity may apply to the secretary of insurance who may then allow them to get coverage from outside of the country. You’d prefer a provider from maybe the US because the people, I understand, are ex-pats from the US that are concerned about the insurance. Should those seven Belizean entities decide that it is too high risk, they may then still go the Secretary of Insurance who may, at that point, give them permission to get coverage from outside. Now, again, categorically, I am not saying that our location is, I am just trying to find as much information so that I may share it with residents and try to satisfy their concerns.”
