One man was killed yesterday while taking part in an armed robbery of a Chinese grocery store on Freetown Road. Police have made quick arrests of his two accomplices. And police were able to move quickly because it was all caught on camera, the store’s security camera. That video shows the extraordinary bravery of one customer who was having a beer in the store – who actually stood up to an armed robber who’d put a gun to his head. Incredible stuff, and 7NEWS has obtained a copy of that portion of the tape. It’s part of the story that Jacqueline Godwin put together today.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
Today it was business as usual inside the Garden Shop at no. 42 Freetown Road but twenty four hours earlier it was a scene of sheer terror and panic for the owner Dennis Chow and two patrons.

This is the view from behind Dennis Chow’s counter. Chow sits here behind the counter – at the bottom of your televisions screen. In front of him is one man collecting his change at the counter and two patrons sitting across from him. Rolling the tape, the first man walks in. 5 seconds later, the other walks in and goes to the row at the right.

Sensing danger, the Spanish man gets up and goes for his machete which is outside the door. And that’s right when Jermaine Gomez walks in. The customer puts down his machete right next to where he’s having a beer. And it’s right on time as the second man then bursts from the row on the right with his gun pulled, and says.

Gunman: ‘Nobody move.’

But the Spanish customer does move – he goes for his machete – which is still in its scabbard, and the gunman goes to hold the machete and puts the gun to his head Undaunted the machete man holds the pistol. They start to struggle – and a shot is fired, lose range but it doesn’t hit the machete man In fact, it doesn’t even discourage him; he does not stop, he reacts by raising his machete and manages to get the gunman spun around, which is when he fires a chop and starts pushing him out the door.

That’s when Jermaine Gomez gets into the frame. He takes a Belikin pint and stones the Spanish man, causing him to buckle – while another man with a handkerchief over his face dashes out the door.

If you want to know why he’s running so fast – we need to rewind the tape a few seconds to this point. Look at the bottom of the frame and you’ll see him rifling through Chow’s drawers, looking for the cash pan while the struggle is happening – and right there he helps himself to $600 in cash. He dashes out, and a few seconds later shots are fired.

The three bullets caught twenty year old Jermaine Gomez to the right side of his chest, right arm pit and the right lower part of the back. He collapsed and died some fifty feet away from the stores entrance in the middle of Freetown Road. Dennis Chow told police he took out his licensed nine milimeter pistol and fired the weapon because he feared for his life and that of his customer.

The body of Jermaine Gomez was placed in the back of a police pickup and then taken to the Belize City morgue. At the scene police also recovered the three bicycles the robbers left behind. Quick police response also resulted in the arrest of the gunman and the other robber. They have been identified as twenty one year old Mervin Bradley and twenty year old Stephen Edward Chuc.

Clemente Palacio, Police Press Officer
“They are going to be charged with the following: Stephen Chuc and Mervin Bradley are going to be charged with robbery and attempted robbery and aggravated assault charges.”

Police investigations suggests the hold-up and robbery was no random act.

Supt. Aaron Guzman, CIB
“It is obvious that there was some planning on their part to go and do that robbery. They went in there and did manage to get some monies in that robbery. But it so happens that the proprietor and one of his customers defended their property and defended themselves.”

But Jermaine Gomez’s family believes that while the shopkeeper had the right defend his life and property, they do not believe their loved one had to be killed. The family also believes that Stephen Edward Chuc and Mervin Bradley are responsible. Gomez’s guardian who did not wish to appear on camera says Jermaine was sleeping when one of the men came to the house.

Voice of Gomez Guardian,
“The young, his name is Stephen Chuc and he came and he woke him and told him to come downstairs and to see what he wanted. After that Jermaine came back, he told he wanted to borrow the bicycle and I told him go on the bike. When Jermaine went, he never did come back. 12:30 came and I wondered how come he didn’t come back until when the same young man who came for him, he came and said Jermaine got shot up. I said if Jermaine was dead and he said no. He said I needed to go to the hospital and thing and check up on Jermaine. I went to check up on Jermaine and when I reached there, I was told Jermaine died on the spot.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Who you blame for Jermaine’s death?

Voice of Gomez Guardian,
“I blame Stephen Chuc because he came and he woke him up and Marvin Bradley; two of them. Marvin Bradley didn’t did come here. Only Stephen Chuc came and woke him out of his sleep.”

Lynn Armstrong, Gomez’s Girlfriend
“I blame Stephen Chuc for it because he came and woke him out of his bed and told him to go with home. I don’t know why he did that.”

Voice of Gomez Guardian,
“I just want them to spend their time because they caused Jermaine’s death because the young boy was here sleeping and they actually came and woke him up.”

Lynn Armstrong,
“I just want them to spend life there because they didn’t have any right to come and holler for him out of his bed for him to go. I went there and I never talked to the Chiney man, my friend talked to him and he asked him why he had to kill him, he could have shot him right in the foot or somewhere – he didn’t have to kill him because he gaan just like that.”

Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“The feeling I get from discussions with the Commissioner and his opinion is that if you have a business and you go through the proper course of applying for your firearm, doing the vetting, you have some training in using that firearm, and you have a safe place to keep that firearm, then more than likely you will be granted a firearm’s license.

I would hope that they don’t get robbed but a person who is a victim will tell you that if he or she was robbed by more than one person, because of the fright of being robbed, you are not sure who has exactly what. We have had instances where persons were robbed at gunpoint, only to find out that it is imitation firearm.”

Clemente Palacio,
“Again if we might add, that one can speculate as they will when something of this magnitude happens but again the reaction time clearly is left to the discretion of the individual who goes through that incident and of course I think none of us are capable of saying what we would do in that event.”

Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“At this stage we are doing our investigative work. We’ve put the file together with what is the police’s opinion on it and we will forward it to the DPP.

In all that commotion it lasted between 10 and 16 seconds, the whole ordeal. Now in that space of time you have to make a decision, do I wait to be shot or shot at and check if I am shot to fire back or do I go ahead and defend myself and others that are around me by firing on these culprits.”

It is still not known if any charges will be levied against the store owner Dennis Chow. But business owners in the area say they have had enough of crime.

Errol Garbutt, Businessman
“Well we have to be concerned because they are holding up nearly every store along here. We are a small business place, we don’t do cash flow in here much – it is mostly orders and things like that for vehicles. We do tinting and fix vehicles and thing like that so we don’t deal with much cash flow. But we are concerned.”

Victor Robateau, Business Owner
“I am very much concerned. I will love to have more police presence in the neighbourhood, that would deter the thieves from attempting like what happened on Sunday.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
What precautionary measures you have taken to protect yourself, your employees and your business?

Victor Robateau,
“We keep our doors closed, we only open if the person looks presentable or such thing as that. We wouldn’t let in anybody.”

Shane Fairweather, Employee - Benny’s
“We are very concerned because right now at anytime, somebody can just walk in and rob the store. Everyday that is a factor to us because you have people riding up and down on bikes. Someone can just throw down a bike and run right in the shop.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
What precautionary measures you have taken to protect your self, your employees, and your business?

Errol Garbutt,
“Well it is only me, my two sons, and we try our best to protect ourselves and sometimes we lock the gate if people pass who look suspicious come to our attention. We have to be prepared all the time.”

Shane Fairweather,
“Safety measures, normally we have one person in the front, one person in the back, and one person at that entrance right over there.”

Kenrick Richards, Sales Representative
“Here at Cellular Plus we have our surveillance cameras at the door, at the entrance, and also if a customer comes in, we have a buzzer in place and we buzz them in. So they don’t just step in the store, we always have an advance on them so we know who is coming in at the time. Well recently we’ve had several hold-ups around town or even on Freetown itself so we always try to be alert and have our employees look out for any suspicious movements outside and around the store.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Would you like to see more police patrol in the area?

Kenrick Richards,
“Yeah they can help but the thieves are so good at what they do that they dodge them and they attack when their backs are turned or they aren’t patrolling at the time because we do have several patrols that pass probably in the morning or afternoon but maybe a foot patrol will help.”

Today the police are investigating to see if Stephen Edward Chuc and Mervin Bradley are responsible for any of the robberies on Freetown Road.

Supt. Aaron Guzman,
“We are looking into all these cases and we would hope that if witnesses realize that the description fits that they should come back in and see us so we see where we go from there. There is one instance where we are reviewing a surveillance camera of a business that was robbed, using this same modus. So it may be that these persons were involved in those previous robberies.”

Errol Garbutt,
“I think they should try find a way out rather than do this because they are endangering their lives. I mean just imagine, he went and did that and he got hurt. Maybe he had his friends along with him who saw it happen. That is just an example to the rest of them, you could be hurt too. I wish the guys would stop. I wish they would stop because it is not worth it. I don’t know who is the person who died, the fact remains he died and the parents have to deal with it. But I think the parents need to get involved and talk to their kids and tell them that there is a better way out, find a job or something to do. I know life haad but better can be done.”

The police have not recovered any of the six hundred dollars stolen or the weapon used to commit the crime. Jacqueline Godwin for 7NEWS.

It’s of note that just about 10 years ago, in September of 1998, Dennis Chow shot and killed an intruder, Anthony Watson who he found in his home which is above the store. And one more significant historical footnote: even before tonight - Chow may have had the most famous security camera in all of Belize. In March of 2002, 7NEWS showed you video of law enforcement personnel drunk, disorderly and caught on camera – robbing Chow.