Also this past weekend, an accident involving a pickup truck and a motorcycle, took place near mile forty, along the George Price Highway. It claimed the life of Joel Teck who was riding the motorcycle. According to police, the driver of the vehicle lost control and slammed into Teck, causing his fatal injuries.
“Police visited an area near Harmonyville where they saw a Dodge Ram pickup and a motorcycle extensively damaged. Police visited the hospital where Joel Teck was found and he was pronounced dead on arrival. Information was that he was on a motorcycle when he collided with the Dodge Ram pickup. The driver of that pickup was identified as Roy Williams. He has since been arrested and charged for manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct and drove motor vehicle without due care and attention.”
Reporter
“Do you know the circumstances of the accident?”
Hilberto Romero
“The pickup, apparently the driver lost some control and entered the lane and crashed into the motorcycle.”
Minister of Sustainable Development, Orlando Habet is resting at home after he was involved in a traffic accident that could have potentially left him with serious injuries. Habet was reportedly heading from Santa Elena enroute to his office in Belmopan when his SUV and a truck collided into each other, and Habet’s vehicle ended up on its roof on top of the guard rail on the side of the highway. Luckily, the minister did not suffer any major injuries, but he was taken to the San Ignacio Town Hospital for observations before he was released. Habet has reportedly expressed gratitude to everyone who has sent well wishes to him and his family.
Nineteen-year-old Glenford Dougall recounts a tragic accident where his girlfriend, Denia Rowland, lost her life while they were returning from a football game. The accident occurred on the Philip Goldson Highway near the Sandhill Police Station. The couple was in the back of the pickup truck driven by Oscar Alexander Galindo who was reportedly under the influence. Despite Dougall’s efforts to persuade the driver to slow down, the vehicle flipped, resulting in Rowland’s death. Dougall remains admitted at the K.H.M.H. where News Five’s Hipolito Novelo spoke to him. Here is that report.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
Nineteen-year-old Glenford Dougall saw his life flash before his eyes when the Ford Ranger pickup truck he was in flipped several times.
Glenford Dougall
Glenford Dougall, Boyfriend of Deceased
“I just saw a bright light and when I saw bright and I wake up, when I wake up, I never knew that my foot was broken. Nothing.”
But that wasn’t the worst of it. In Dougall’s arms, his girlfriend of one year and four months, nineteen-year-old Denia Rowland dead.
Glenford Dougall
“All I knew that was my girlfriend wasn’t breathing in my arms still as in the accident when I think she flew has flown out. She was in my arms. And then when I woke up, she was still in my arms. And then I was so mad and pissed and I was. I don’t know. I couldn’t help myself that night and I don’t, I, I don’t want to ask God or judge God or anything. Right. But I just said like, why her? Why, why, why couldn’t me as well as I was with her in the accident, I was still with her. So why didn’t me as well?.”
The fatal accident happened on Saturday morning on the Philip Goldson Highway near the Sandhill Police Station. The couple was returning to Belize City from a football game.
Glenford Dougall
“She came to my house at the night and I told her I was going to the Sandhill to watch the game. So I say, like, all your peoples are there, would you want to come too? So she said, yes, I don’t mind, baby, I will come. So then, we take her, we all went, it was at the game. Then, our first driver, with amount of people who was in the car, we went to drop them off, and when we went to drop them off, we, it looked like, when they drop off the first driver, the first driver was high, was drinking as well as the rest, but me and my girlfriend wasn’t drinking. None of that because I just came out of the hospital, I cannot drink, I cannot smoke. When we can drop the driver off with three female friends that he had. So it looked like when we can drop them off, they switched driver or something like to another driver. And then we were still in the back of the pickup truck me, my girlfriend and my friend and the driver was at the front. And it seems like when we was coming back, three of us fall asleep behind the pickup truck with my girlfriend in my arms. To be honest, going when we first left from the city, the first driver was speeding like they was racing with another dirt bike. And then, my girl, she was complaining at the back, make we slow down, they slow down. So I tell my friend and we tell him we slow down. So they start slow down, they did slow down, but look like coming back home, second where we drop asleep at the back, we know the focus where it happened, and the next driver he was drinking too, he was under the influence, and look like he lose control, and the car flipped. When I woke up and I was, my girl was in my hand, I got up. My friend was beside me that invited me to go on the trip cause he invited me and I invited my girl. He, I was talking to him and I was like, why Wilson? Why, why did you invite me? Why, why we end up to come? Why you never tell me that all of this may happen? Things like that. And then. I’ll be honest. I did hit him out of ignorance. I hit him, but I apologized to him because it wasn’t his fault. And then I went to the driver and I saw the driver and then I was, I was crying and I was explaining to him why, why did you do that? What happened? What was the problem? And all he did was watch me in my face, hang on his head and shake his head from side to side.”
Oscar Galindo
On Monday, the driver, twenty-year-old Oscar Alexander Galindo was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrates where he was slapped with several criminal charges. He was charged with manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, drove motor vehicle with alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit and negligent grievous harm. Police told reporters on Monday that Galindo was under the influence and speeding. He was offered bail of six thousand dollars which he met. Galindo must report to the Racoon Street police station every two weeks. He is expected to reappear in court on June seventh. Contrary to reports, Rowland was not pregnant. Dougall who suffered a broken right leg, says they had plans to build a life together.
Glenford Dougall
“To be honest, words can’t explain, sir. I cry, I still feel like I want to cry, I cried from the day, I cried to know, So much time I think about suicide just for me time because we’ve, I’ve, me and my girl fight, we fight for everything together. So, at this point I feel like, because she gone, I at least want the day we time to fight this too. But everybody tell me it don’t make sense because, she what I want, I be strong, and still help out to the family and thing. But, I put it away that, it just don’t hurt that, it just don’t hurt and, I don’t know how to let go. And I just have to because in a day, only God knows why.”
A young woman died as a result of a road traffic accident over the weekend. It happened on Saturday morning between miles seventeen and eighteen on the Philip Goldson Highway. The victim is nineteen-year-old Denia Rowland. The Ford Ranger pickup truck was being driven at the time by twenty-year-old Oscar Galindo, who reportedly lost control, causing it to flip several times. Investigators believe he was under the influence of alcohol and speeding. A.C.P. Hilberto Romero provided an update.
“Investigation revealed that she was riding inside this pickup truck being driven at the time by Oscar Galindo, twenty years when Galindo lost control of the vehicle. It overturned and she was flown out of the vehicle. An investigation was carried out and as a result, Oscar Galindo has been arrested and charged for the crimes of manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, drove motor vehicle without due care or attention, and drove motor vehicle with alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit.”
Oscar Galindo
Hipolito Novelo
“Was he speeding?”
A.C.P. Hilberto Romero
“The information regarding, yes he was speeding and alcohol was involved.”
A man lost his life in a road traffic accident on George Price Boulevard in Benque Viejo del Carmen Town on Friday night. The victim, fifty-four-year-old Polito August, was on a motorcycle when he collided with a Kia Soul, which was driven at the time by thirty-six-year-old Jimmy Leslie. A.C.P. Hilberto Romero told reporters today that Leslie has been served with a notice of intended prosecution.
“Information is that the Kia Soul was being driven by Jimmy Leslie, thirty-eight-years when he came out of a lane and the motorcycle being driven by Polito August collided with the vehicle. N. I. P. was served. A sketch plan drawn. Investigation carried out. And since then, Jimmy Leslie, has been arrested and charged for the crimes of drove motor vehicle that you cannot change attention, causing death by careless conduct. He will be taken to court today.”
Reporter
“How did the collision happen?”
A.C.P Hilberto Romero
“The vehicle came out of a lane and the motorcycle collided into it.”
Reporter
“Was alcohol involved?”
A.C.P Hilberto Romero
“A sample was obtained and we await the results of those.”
Meanwhile in Belize City, a man was knocked down and killed. It happened on Saturday night on Central American Boulevard. Police responded to a report of a person lying motionless on the road. Upon arrival, they found the motionless body of a male individual who has yet to be identified. It is believed that it was a hit and run. Police are investigating.
Maximo Chan was knocked down and killed this morning in Guinea Grass Village, Orange Walk District. Witnesses say that Chan was about to board a bus when a vehicle stuck him down. He was rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital, where he died.
The latest incident has villagers demanding that speed bumps be placed on the Guinea Grass Road. One person wrote on Facebook, “The village council needs to do better, as bumps are urgently needed in the village. People drive within the village like it’s a free way.”
Another wrote, “How many more people have to die so they can put pedestrian ramps up? How many more children have to be run over by drivers who do not respect the speed limit in the village?”
Guatemalan truck driver, Tony Duarte, is lucky to be alive today after the container truck he was driving overturned. The incident happened near mile fifty-six on the George Price Highway earlier this afternoon. Duarte sustained injuries, and ambulance services arrived promptly.
A murder happened in broad daylight in Ladyville on Saturday evening. It happened in the thick of traffic, as the occupants of one vehicle tried to escape the wrath of the driver in another vehicle. But they didn’t escape and when the pursuer caught up with his target, he acted with deadly precision, shooting one of the occupants before fleeing the scene on foot. Amber Dawson told reporters that she and her boyfriend, Damion Baptist were trying to escape her ex-boyfriend, Jamie Young, who is now wanted for murder. News Five’s Marion Ali visited Grace Bank to speak with Dawson, and to Burrell Boom Village, to speak with the mother of the victim. Here’s that report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
It unfolded quickly, sometime around five, on Saturday evening on the Philip Goldson Highway, where the driver of this red Honda Fusion tried to manoeuvre his way through heavy traffic while fleeing a gun-wielding attacker. But he could not make it through, and the gunman caught up with him and shot him through the passenger side of the car, causing him to swerve off the road and slam into this lamppost in front of the Ladyville R.C. School. Behind the steering wheel of the vehicle was thirty-year-old Damion Baptist, who was heading from Maxboro to his house in Burrell Boom. But when he came under attack, he decided to drive past the Burrell Boom cut-off and attempted to make a dash for the Ladyville Police Station a few miles away. But even the police were out of his reach.
“On Saturday, 16th day of March 2023, around 5:30 p.m., police responded to a shooting incident in Ladyville Village in front of the Ladyville R.C. School. Upon their arrival, police found a car with what appeared to be bullet holes. Information received [was] that a person received gunshot injuries and was taken to the KHMH for treatment.”
Baptist’s relatives say he died en route to the hospital. He had been shot in the head. Amber Dawson, who saw everything unfold from the passenger seat, told reporters that Baptist spent the day in Grace Bank Village where she lives, and that it was her ex-boyfriend who killed him.
Voice of: Amber Dawson
Voice of: Amber Dawson, Girlfriend of Deceased
“We spent the day here. It was my nephew birthday. Everything was going well. We left. We passed Mr. Young house. We stopped at my grandmother, spent five minutes. We never spent long at my grandmother, and we went. We were going to his house in Boom and after we passed Maxboro Junction, on that long stretch, it all became so crazy, hectic. Mr. Young was driving in the opposite direction towards us. He was at his home when we passed him, so he had to leave when I stopped at my grandmother’s house. [He] run us off the road, crank his gun at us, push his gun through the window, crank it, Mr. Baptist speed up. He was like, “we need to reach the police station.”
Dawson said that on three occasions that evening, Young tried to harm them on the highway.
Voice of: Amber Dawson
“When we passed the curb after Maxboro, he was coming in the opposite direction. He was literally driving into us. Mr. Baptist was driving, so he pulled on the side of the road and that’s when he cranked his gun at us and Mr. Baptist sped off. After that, it was around by Tubal we were stuck – traffic was there, so we pulled on the side again. And that’s when the first gunshot went off. Everything happened on the passenger side. So when we pull on the side, the first shot went off. It went at the bottom of the car window. That’s when Mr. Baptist told me to drop my seat and stay low. And then he kept on driving on the side of the road because traffic was hectic in Ladyville that day. And when we reached again by the RC school, the next bullet went off and the next thing I know we were driving into the lamppost. That’s when I looked over and I saw Mr. Baptist’s head down.”
Amber Dawson says that she had dated Jamie Young for thirteen years but broke up with him late last year. It was around the same time that she and Baptist became friends, she said, but they did not start to date until last month. And that was when they came under sustained attacks, to the point, that she had to take out a restraining order against Young.
Voice of: Amber Dawson
“Everywhere I go, that young man follows. Everywhere I go, he follows. Every time I pass his house, I bet I look in my mirror, he will be behind, good five, ten minutes afterwards.”
Marion Ali
“Why do you believe this was the case?”
Voice of: Amber Dawson
“We were in a relationship, we broke up and he couldn’t take it believe. He keeps coming around, following us, following me. Mr. Baptist was just with me that day. Our court deal would have been on Wednesday of this week.”
Baptist left the B.D.F. and was planning to buy a bus and apply for a route later this year. His mother, Shelmadine Baptist says his murder will be hard on his siblings and for his three children. She had just spoken with him moments before he was killed.
Voice of: Shelmadine Baptist
Voice of: Shelmadine Baptist, Mother of Deceased
“He called and he said he di come home. Ih say “Mommy ah deh pahn mi way home.” And I [say] “Bwai, how far yoh deh?” He say, “I deh right by Maxboro, Mommy.” He say ih wa reach directly. I say “okay.” I hang up the phone and then he never call – never come. So I never did call back. I guess da right deh the incident happened because he tell me he mi deh da Maxboro. And then the young lady weh he mi deh with, she tell me that the young man start attack dehn from Maxboro.”
A.C.P Hilberto Romero who briefed the media on this matter, said that the police are now looking for Jamie Young for questioning in connection with this murder. Marion Ali for News Five.
As we reported in last night’s newscast, a man lost his life in a motorcycle accident on Wednesday as he was driving up the Philip Goldson highway near mile one. The police department has not yet released any information on the accident, but we understand that Clarke was driving up the highway when a van that tried to overtake him knocked him down sometime around two in the afternoon. News Five’s Marion Ali has the story in this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
An auditor lost his life in a motorcycle accident in Belize City on Wednesday afternoon. It happened at the entrance of the Philip Goldson Highway, almost in front of A and R Store, and claimed the life of Ishmarley Clarke. News Five met his brother, Fisean Clarke at the scene of the accident. He told us that he had just spoken to Ishmarley a couple days prior to the unfortunate accident and then tried again to reach him about an hour before he died.
Fisean Clarke
Fisean Clarke, Brother of deceased
“I spoke to him on the phone about 2,3 days before this incident, asking him if I could stay at his house. Because I wanted to move from Orange Walk back to Belize [City]. I never did get an answer. I can’t do it again. I can’t do it again. I just, I will try my best to be for my brother and mi niece and nephew them. I got one more brother and niece and nephew right deh soh, so I have to try my best you know. I have to try my best. I neva know this mi wa happen and I di try call ah from one o’clock yesterday afternoon, yeah and he never answer his phone. I suppose to ketch the bus and come to Belize [City] yesterday. I didn’t know all this was going to take place, mein.”
Clarke did not die at the scene. A security guard who works near the location where the accident happened told us off-camera that immediately after the accident, Clarke appeared to be motionless, but then he sat up before the ambulance took him to the hospital.
Voice of: Witness
Voice of: Witness
“I mi deh right ya da work, so I mi just gone tek a lee patrol and I just hear something gone Bang! I never conscious da wa accident. I mi see lotta students right deh and I see a student and I ask what happened and they say it’s an accident. I come and I see the bally motionless on the ground. A lee bit afterwards, like before when the ambulance reached the individual get up, he get up and he sit down and watch his foot.”
Marion Ali
“As in stand up?”
Voice of Witness:
“No, he only sit down right there. He sit down and then when he see ih foot, it’s really bad injury. And then they told him not to move, but then he was touching his foot that bruk, he was touching it. And they told him, don’t move ’cause the ambulance is coming right ahead. And then how it’s a lot of traffic, the ambulance couldn’t get a break to pass. Then finally the ambulance came and then they managed to assist him.”
Marion Ali
“So he was still sitting up when they took him?”
Voice of: Witness
“Yeah, the ambulance, when the ambulance reach he was sitting down and he lay down back again.”
Clarke suffered a badly broken right leg and a gash on his head. His death is a lesson, his brother told us, and a reminder of how fragile life is. Ishmarley, he said, had plans to help his siblings.
Fisean Clarke
“His plan was to get a – get some more land for the family that we don’t need to go through a whole heap of problems in the future, assist the family with land and stuff like the properties and things that we need to achieve. Fi this happen to he and my family, I hope everybody could see that ih nuh impossible, ih nuh impossible, ih nuh impossible.”
