Shopkeeper and mother beaten, home torched and mass machete fight: a night of terror in Krooman Lagoon

A family in the Krooman Lagoon area is tonight trying to piece their lives back together, after losing everything to a house fire. This was, however, no accidental fire and there were violent incidents both before and after the blaze that left several people wounded.  News Five’s Paul Lopez visited the area to get a better understanding of what transpired on Sunday night and who seems to be behind the violence that seems to have been sparked by a lack of cigarettes at a shop.

Paul Lopez, Reporting

One family is left traumatized tonight after a group of men physically attacked them and burnt their house to the ground in the Krooman Lagoon Area. It was just before midnight when a man entered Violet Singh’s corner shop store to purchase cigarettes. That encounter escalated into a brutal situation no one in her home saw coming.

Violet Singh, Assault Victim

“So this guy comes and he asks me for cigarette. So, I tell him that the cigarette finish. So, it looks like he and his brother had an altercation outside. So, his brother follow he and want start the fight right yah between deh two. The two brothers, that dah the one weh the fight. So, I tell deh please leave. Dah nuh wah small fight, dah wah big commotion deh the have. So, I tell them please get out, please get out. And, the same time I tell deh that, the guy get a stick, or I think he had a stick, he just lift it and knock me with it.”

Singh says her husband then exited the house and confronted the man for hitting her. That is when five other men joined the assailant and proceeded to attack Singh’s family.

Violet Singh

Violet Singh

“All ah deh come. Deh knock my husband. Deh knock me. Deh knock my brother in law. So we run een, lock the door and call police. But, the same time my mom the come from church. And, when my mom the come from church and try open the door deh seh, “oh you dah her mah so you wah get it to.” Deh start beat up my mah with a two by four.”

Paul Lopez

“That’s unconscionable.”

Violet Singh

“Deh buss my mah head, hand and foot fih nothing.”

When we met the elderly today she was wearing bandages on her head, feet and hand. She was evidently in pain. Eventually the men left. But unfortunately, the distressing ordeal did not end there for this family. While they were all at the hospital being treated for their wounds, several of the men returned and burned down their home!

Violet Singh

“It look like police grab three of them and it get them more mad that we put the report that yes dah deh do all of this to us. So, because of that, deh give we a message fih seh we still the out so unu nuh wah stay with nothing, unu guh from here. That dah how I tek it, for no reason. Deh dah some group ah people weh call themselves gangs. Deh call themselves MS-13 and deh want the come attack people weh the work hard. Deh nuh work. All deh do that heng and drink with each other, nothing. We work.”

Singh and her family lost everything to the fire, barely making it out of the attack with their own lives. But apparently the fire was not the end of the night’s drama either.  Several of the men believed to be involved, reportedly started fighting among themselves.

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, Belize Police Department

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood

“I just got a little information about a chopping incident in the Krooman area of Belize City. We have several persons detained. We know that several persons ended up at the KHMH and even those persons that went there were treated and are in police custody. We know that it was a brawl and sometime after persons were detained for this brawl, a house was burnt down in the area also. So, hopefully during the course of today I can give you an update on it.”

Police were in the community today carrying out an intensive manhunt for the men they say are currently on the run. For Singh and her family, including her children who witnessed the entire trauma, life may never be the same.

Violet Singh

“Front of my kids, front of my children. My children see everything. The house mih full ah blood, full ah blood. When all ah we run een and everybody the bleed. My house full ah blood. My kids deh right deh the cry. And, after that mek deh the tell me that deh the try light up the house. Then deh seh no deh have it under control, but fih reach home and when I sih everything on fire, my work gawn to nothing. You know how hard it is to mek your things. Me and mih husband work hard fih get what we want, and deh just tek it to nothing, fih nothing, casue I neva do them nothing. So, I still nuh get it weh wrong with them guys. Deh need fih guh dah jail. Cause imagine, deh mih could kill my mah. She lucky she alive. Fih what reason, nothing? Only cause deh the drink and get crazy deh the attack people weh have nothing fih do with. That nuh fair.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.

At news time two men have been detained by police, but they have not been charged. Others are being sought.