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Details are sketchy at this time but tonight one young man is dead and another lies seriously injured in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after a case of armed highway robbery last night. According to reports twenty six year old Shipyard resident Cornelio Schmitt and twenty two year old Emigidio Gomez of Guinea Grass Village had spent most of yesterday logging somewhere behind Banana Bank in the Cayo District. They were returning to the north yesterday evening with a bulldozer.
Reports are that around five yesterday evening their truck was stopped as it passed through Hattieville Village by at least three persons believed to have been following behind in a car.

Late this morning the body of twenty two year old Emigdio Gomez was found on a feeder road off mile one of the Coastal Road. Gomez had been tortured and then hanged. Cornelio Schmitt remains hospitalized at the KHMH with several gunshot wounds to his neck and abdomen. 7NEWS caught up with the deceased’s family and residents of Shipyard.

Soly Silva, Cousin of Murder Victim
“It is terrible. They took a life and it is nothing nice.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
They hanged him?

Soly Silva,
“Yes.”

Yolanda Gomez, Aunt of Murder Victim
“They were coming back with the bulldozer, they had gone on a trip with the bulldozer and a car was behind them and they didn’t know if they wanted to do them something. The car flagged them, telling them that something was wrong with lights. So they stepped out thinking that yes probably something was wrong. But then they attacked them, put them in the car, and took them to the Coastal Road and they left someone guarding the truck because they wanted the truck and money. All we think is that they are after money.”

Soly Silva,
“They left my cousin in the car outside and then at a house, somewhere on the Coastal Road, then they left my cousin in the car and took the Mennonite inside and they started to ask him for the money. He didn’t have any money. While they were struggling, they told him he must have the money or some type of money and then they started to shoot the Mennonite. He has many gunshot wounds. And when my cousin heard the shots, probably he was afraid for his life. So he started to struggle with the guy that was guarding him and he run for his life and the guy started to scream that he’s gone. So they started to chase him, they started to shoot him and they couldn’t catch him. Apparently they ran out of gunshots so they had to hang him.

They are two Spanish like clear, probably Guatemalans and one Creole descent. So maybe they planned it and they knew what was going on.

They didn’t have any money, they didn’t get anything. They don’t travel with money. They are working, they went to work.”

Yolanda Gomez,
“Everybody wants justice, if they can do justice but we have one God that knows everything.”

Voice of Friend of Cornelio Schmidt,
“I think he’s doing okay. He had an operation this morning and I think he just started to get better.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
He received several gun shot wounds I understand?

Voice of Friend of Cornelio Schmidt,
“He received some gunshots but I am not sure how much. I think it was three.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
What are the doctors saying about his recovery?

Voice of Friend of Cornelio Schmidt,
“They are saying he is getting better and everything.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Did they want the bulldozer, did they want the truck or they wanted money?

Voice of Friend of Cornelio Schmidt,
“They were asking for money but they only had $300 with them and they didn’t give the guys money so they started shooting and I don’t know exactly how this happened because he is in the hospital and we couldn’t talk to him good as yet. He was logging back at Banana Bank.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
And he was heading back to Guinea Grass?

Voice of Friend of Cornelio Schmidt,
“Yeah. He finished his job, because he was hired last week, so he was taking the bulldozer back to Guinea Grass Village.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Do you believe they were being followed for quite some time?

Voice of Friend of Cornelio Schmidt,
“I don’t know. I can’t say anything about it.”

The police have no substantial leads at this time.