Trial Farmer Villager is Run Over…Is It Vehicular Homicide?

Jillian Garcia

A young man from Trial Farm, Orange Walk District is dead and an investigation is underway to determine whether the circumstances that led to his demise were intentional or accidental.  Jillian Garcia was knocked down and killed shortly after leaving an establishment where he had an altercation with several individuals.  Those persons have been detained and it is now up to police to decide what charges will be preferred on the driver.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano headed north today and spoke with Garcia’s family.  Here’s that story.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Was nineteen-year-old Jillian Garcia deliberately run over by someone he had an altercation with earlier on Sunday night or was it all just a coincidence that the driver of a Mitsubishi Outlander lost control of the sports utility vehicle and knocked him down?

Lupita Garcia, Sister of Deceased

“He was coming towards his home when that vehicle knocked down my little brother.”

Four persons, including two teenage minors, are in police custody pending the outcome of an investigation into Garcia’s death.  His family believes that he was murdered and this now charred SUV was the weapon used to kill him.

Marcella Tun

Marcella Tun, Mother of Deceased

“They have to investigate first because they can’t point to somebody only because everything [that] happens here is gang related.  Dehn seh that he was fighting with two females and wahn male.  Sir, if it is gang-related, the two women and the man means that they are gang-related too.”

It happened here at Cantina’s Mix Cool Spot, a small establishment in Trial Farm Village.  Garcia was out socializing with three others when he reportedly got into an argument with a group of patrons at the bar.  According to Police Press Officer Fitzroy Yearwood, Garcia was pursued by one of the individuals whom he had confronted moments earlier.

Fitzroy Yearwood

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, Belize Police Department

“He opted to leave and he was followed by one of the persons that they were arguing with, or persons, more than one of them who got into the vehicle and claims that they lost control.  Witnesses are saying that he was driving at a very high speed when he ran over Garcia and crashed into a lamppost nearby.”

Witnesses told News Five off-record that the violent impact of the collision flung the young man a distance away.  The vehicle then ran him over before its occupants fled the scene.  In refuting claims that the incident was gang-related, Lupita Garcia says that her brother was simply someone who stood up for himself.

Lupita Garcia

Lupita Garcia

“Everybody hated my little brother because he did not leave himself, he was a person that stood up for himself.  No one could come and chance my little brother because my little brother stepped up to them.  That’s how I knew my brother, he did not leave himself.”

Twenty-six-year-old Marny Chable has been taken into police custody, along with twenty-three-year-old Amir Gonzalez.  The other male minors are fifteen and sixteen years old, respectively.  Assistant Superintendent Yearwood spoke on the detention of the driver.

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood

“He then made good his escape from the scene and was later detained by the police along with three others, including two minors.  So we have them detained pending charges.  Investigators are treating it in the same manner that is suggested because it’s too much of a coincidence that after you had an argument with a group, one of those persons may have used his vehicle as a weapon.”

That vehicle was later set on fire.  The blaze totally consumed it.  Garcia’s mother is calling on the Belize Police Department to conduct a thorough investigation of what took place on Sunday that resulted in the loss of her son.

Marcella Tun

“I want to ask the police to investigate this matter because I noh wahn leff this.  He is my son and he is not a dog.  Dehn noh kill a dog, dehn kill a person and I am his mother and I have the pain eena my heart but I wah be strong for this because I wahn di police do ih job.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.