Still No Charges in Brutal Dangriga Machete Killing

It has been one week since forty-one-year-old Linden Kelly lost his life to injuries sustained during a vicious machete attack in Dangriga Town. Police reports indicate that Kelly was assaulted by two men in the Rivas Estate area following a confrontation on December nineteenth. While two suspects were initially detained, no charges have yet been filed. Tonight, Kelly’s family is appealing to the Belize Police Department for swift justice, both for the safety of the community and for their own peace of mind. We spoke with Kelly’s brother, Austin Williams, who shared how the unresolved situation has deepened the family’s grief as they prepare to lay him to rest.

 

Britney Gordon

“Does this cause unease within your family for your own personal safety?”

 

On the Phone: Austin Williams, Brother of Deceased

“Yes. Yes it does, because we are looking at, we are looking at people who just killed a man like that and they’re off they’re walking around like killing in Dangriga like It’s legal, you understand? And of course my mom, she’s upset. She feels she’s not safe, and she’s still mourning, Sunday is the funeral. This coming Sunday, they will have the funeral service, and of course, she’s still mourning her son’s death and to see that nothing is taking place, she’s very upset. In the past, yes, he got in an incident and no one is saying, we are taking up for him or saying he’s a good guy, or, because everyone to their family, they’re good. We don’t know what he’s doing or what he was doing on the streets, but yes, he did serve his time and that’s something that you can probably compare it to. It’s very devastating for us as a family. It’s, and to see his life got cut sharp just like that. And knowing he has this business he’s been working on and there was a lot of push wrong with this business that he was working on, but he was trying to find a way  to get it done the right way so that his business could have get up and running and now to see everything, his progress, his accomplishment is we’re hoping that we can find someone who can continue pushing on the business and let his legacy live on. Everything is frustrating to be honest with you because, we’re just getting from the police saying, DPP is the problem. And we don’t know. It’s not like we’re inside there doing the job, so we don’t really know who to blame. But we’re asking if the government, the ministers, those in the police department, if they’re hearing us, to come on, work, push something into Dangriga, elevate the standard of how the police operates because you can’t just have criminals out there on the street. We’re asking for them to amp up their game.”