Category: Belize District

It’s been a tough few weeks for forty-eight-year-old Doris Grant.  From being charged with forty counts of theft and obtaining property by deception, to police raids on her properties in Gardenia Village and Belize City.  On Sunday morning, the businesswoman and her common-law husband came under gunfire on Fairweather Street, while heading home from a concert event.  While the pair is recovering from injuries received during the ambush, things have only gotten worse for Grant and thirty-one-year-old Austin Underwood.  Tonight, the couple is on remand at the Belize Central Prison after being charged for gang membership.  Shortly after twelve o’clock today, Grant and Underwood appeared before the lower courts where they were arraigned on a single charge each.  It is alleged that they are both members of the Southside Gang.  The couple pleaded not guilty, nonetheless, they were denied bail at the Magistrate Court level.  With that, Grant and Underwood are being held at the Belize Central Prison until July thirty-first.  Attorney Ronnell Gonzalez sought permission to make submissions on their behalf for the court to consider granting bail under special circumstances, however, the court did not entertain the request.  As we’ve reported, Grant is being investigated for her alleged involvement in a land scheme in which several Mennonites were defrauded out of millions of dollars.

There was a murder in Belize City on Tuesday night and police are trying to figure out who the gunmen were that ambushed Jahiem Fitzgibbon and his father near La Croix Boulevard.  The deadly shooting happened sometime around seven p.m., as the men were wrapping up some repair work they were doing on a vehicle that fifty-three-year-old Nimrod Fitzgibbon had recently bought.  The fatal attack comes a surprise to the Fitzgibbon family, especially since Jaheim was described as an easygoing individual.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano has more on the latest homicide in the Old Capital.

 

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

A father and son duo came under deadly gunfire on Tuesday night just off La Croix Boulevard in the Lake Independence area.  Nimrod Fitzgibbon and twenty-year-old Jaheim Fitzgibbon were winding down for the evening after spending the day repairing a vehicle.  The father is a mechanic who was working on a van that he had recently purchased.  His sister is Christobel Fitzgibbon.

 

Christobel Fitzgibbon, Aunt of Deceased

“He tell me that dehn mi di fix this vehicle because he just buy this vehicle because he run di dollar van and then he seh di two persons dehn just pass.  From deh, after a while ih seh well he gaan upstairs because dehn deh eena di vehicle di sihdown, so he gaan gaan light wahn mosquito coil fi bring down cause dehn di chill eena di vehicle.”

 

 

 

 

It was during that time that the gunmen pounced on the unsuspecting victim.  When Nimrod Fitzgibbon heard the reports of gunfire, he immediately rushed outside to see what was happening.  His response, nonetheless, was equally met with a volley of bullets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christobel Fitzgibbon

“When he come, he sih ih son drop.  Soh when he sih ih son drop now, like he just gwein behind di gunman dehn and dehn staat to fire shot and one graze ahn ya pan ih left side and soh he seh he pick up ih son and he holla fi di neighbors and ask dehn fi help, and then dehn pick up ahn and ker ahn to the hospital.”

 

 

 

This morning, a team of investigators returned to the crime scene where several expended shells had been recovered.  The grief-stricken family is still trying to understand why Fitzgibbon and his son were visited with extreme violence of action.

 

Christobel Fitzgibbon

“He have no issue with nobody.  He like talk and he like run joke, you know, and he da somebody he wahn play games, you know, and dehn wah quarrel ova games, “Bwai, I di beat you.”  Things like that.  But he da noh wahn person weh trouble nobody or nothing, nothing, nothing.”

 

So, were the gunmen there to execute Nimrod Fitzgibbon instead?

 

Christobel Fitzgibbon

“Last month, my bredda get a death threat and he call me and seh, “Bella, I get a death threat.”  And I seh, “Okay then, we gwein da di police go report this because then we noh play like that, you know.”  And he seh, “I noh gwein da no police.”  Ah tell ahn, yes, we gwein.”  Ah tell ahn I noh play, we gwein, and so we gaan by Mahogany [Street] Extension and we mek di report.  I call di person and mek di police dehn hear all ah di conversation we me and this person have and weh paat dis person seh he work and everything.  And when di police dehn gaan he noh work da di call center or nothing by Coney Drive weh ih seh ih work.  And from deh di police dehn neva did tek wahn statement or so fahn he.”

 

Instead, Fitzgibbons was informed that he needed to get in touch with CIB personnel for a request to be made through the telephone company to determine who the number belongs to.  To date, the owner of the SIM card remains undetermined.  In the aftermath of last night’s shooting, police have detained a close relative of the deceased.

 

Christobel Fitzgibbon

“So while at the hospital now, the GI3 gaan and dehn just start rough up Ervin Fitzgibbon and have ahn eena custody, stating that dehn di pick up ahn fi gang affiliation, and he done get charged fi gang affiliation and he di goh da court right now fi gang affiliation.  Soh I really noh know how dehn di pick up ahn again fi that.”

 

 

 

 

Isani Cayetano

“Ervin Fitzgibbon is the other one from the other side of the city?”

 

Christobel Fitzgibbon

“Yes, that’s my son and he not even mi deh round when di incident happened or nothing.  He neva deh nowhere near this area.”

 

Isani Cayetano for News Five.