Teens Charged in Bold Shooting of JL’s Security Guard

In other crime news, two teens, one sixteen, the other eighteen-year-old Kriston Fernandez, are now behind bars for the brazen shooting of security guard Justo Pineda outside JL’s Quick Loan. Pineda, forty-nine, survived and is recovering, while police hit the pair with attempted‑murder charges. Fernandez, already arraigned earlier for an unlicensed firearm, has been remanded to the Belize Central Prison; the minor is held at Wagner’s Youth Facility. Fernandez admitted he carried the gun because of threats and his mother’s murder. With charges too serious for bail or a plea, both teens return to court on April sixteenth, 2026.

 

ASP Stacy Smith, Staff Officer

“Police have formally arrested and charged eighteen-year-old Kriston Fernandez  for the offense of kept firearm without a gun license and kept ammunition without a gun license. Also charged in that incident was a sixteen-year-old minor who was charged separately for the offense of kept firearm without a gun license and kept ammunition without a gun license. The charges so far relate to police’s investigation into the report of a shooting incident that occurred sometime around ten thirty p.m. on Thursday twelfth February 2026. The arresting officers reported that they were on Youth for the Future Drive  when their attention was drawn to the songs of shots being fired. And they were also alerted via the control room that a male person was shot at JL’s Quick Loan located on Cleghorn Street in Belize City. The officers proceeded to the area and they observed two male persons and these male persons were pursued.

 

When the two male persons who were observed coming from the direction of North Front Street, over the BelChina Bridge were observed and pursued. One was struck down in the vicinity of West Collet Canal, and he was observed throwing a firearm and the other minor was also struck down, and he too was observed to be in position of a firearm. What we know so far in the course of this investigation is that a security guard that was doing security services at JL’s Quick Loan as at that place of employment when two male persons are reported to have went to that establishment and fired several shots. This resulted in the male person, namely the security guard being injured those male person then fled with two firearms being the property of the security company. We have since confirmed that the firearms that were recovered. Where in fact the firearm that belonged to the company. And as this investigation continues, it is anticipated that additional charges will be brought in relation to that particular incident.”

 

And as investigators dig deeper, police say more charges could follow as they work to pin down exactly what led to the violent attack outside the loan office.