Dr Naun Bonilla Remembered as “A Servant of Humanity”

“He genuinely was a servant of humanity.” That is how close friends and colleagues remembered Dr Naun Bonilla this morning on Open Your Eyes. Bonilla was targeted and executed last Friday in Belmopan while on his way to drop his daughter off at school.

“He invested his life into people,” said Bonilla’s close friend, Gianni Alamilla. “Dr Bonilla was someone who always inspired you to do more… And that is part of the reason why we were so adamant about rallying, because we knew that what was done yesterday, Dr Bonilla would have done for any colleague under similar circumstances.”

Colleagues, friends, and patients took to the streets of Belmopan on Monday to honour the 35-year-old doctor. “Yesterday was a demonstration of solidarity, and we as a medical community came together to celebrate the life of a very young and brilliant physician that essentially exemplifies why we came to be doctors. To serve people, to help the community, and to love a family,” said Internist Dr. Jorge Hidalgo.

“It is surreal to be walking out in my corridors this morning and not seeing him pass by in his green scrubs. His office was right in front of my door, and it was always pleasant to see his patients waiting for him outside and him taking hours with each patient,” added Bonilla’s eight-year work colleague and Director of the Belmopan Medical Imaging Center, Dr Virginia Smith.

As a father taken away too soon from his daughter, his colleagues said he was as devoted to his daughter as much as he was to his patients.

“ His 12:00 to 1:00 was always a non-negotiable because that’s the time he went every single day and had lunch with his daughter,” Alamilla said. “ And his biggest fear was actually for his daughter to grow up in a world without her dad…  That’s just something the family and everyone associated with it is struggling to accept.”

Meanwhile, police have identified a vehicle and a person of interest and are pursuing two motives, though investigators have declined to disclose details to avoid compromising the case.

No arrests have been made at this time and a motive remains unconfirmed.