A quiet opening shift at a popular Belize City entertainment venue ended in devastating tragedy on Thursday, leaving a 34-year-old woman dead, two other people injured, and a community reeling from senseless violence. Salma Funez, a working mother of three and an employee at Da Buzz Lounge on the Phillip Goldson Highway, was killed in a targeted shooting just minutes after the establishment opened its doors to the evening crowd.
Witnesses recalled that the night had just begun: Funez was seated near the bar, the bartender was prepping for incoming patrons, and other staff were settling into their shifts. One anonymous employee recalled that shortly after opening, a colleague noted an unfamiliar person enter the venue and immediately head to the restroom, a detail that struck them as odd but did not immediately raise alarm. That person, police confirmed, was a 16-year-old male who wore a face covering to hide his identity.
Surveillance cameras captured the suspect leaving the restroom and approaching Funez directly, with any exchange between the pair so quiet that nearby staff did not notice any argument. According to Funez’s brother-in-law Joshua Trapp, eyewitnesses told the family the suspect demanded Funez’s phone immediately before opening fire. The spray of bullets grazed two other employees: one was hit in the head, and another suffered a gunshot wound to the hand. One injured employee described the chaotic aftermath to reporters, recalling seeing blood run down her own head, spotting Funez lying motionless on the floor, and fleeing to safety while thinking only of her own children.
Trapp told reporters that Funez was a dedicated, loving woman whose life revolved entirely around her three children. For the 10 years he has known her, he said, she led a quiet routine of going to work and returning home to her kids, with no known involvement in any activity that would put her at risk of violence.
Authorities launched an immediate manhunt after the shooting, pulling surveillance footage to map the suspect’s movements and setting up vehicular checkpoints across the area. By 11:30 p.m. Thursday, law enforcement had taken the 16-year-old suspect into custody. In a recent update, ASP Stacy Smith, a staff officer with the department, confirmed that investigators have also recovered the firearm suspected to be used in the killing.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that Funez and the detained suspect already knew each other, and police believe the suspect targeted Funez’s phone to destroy prior threatening messages he had sent her. “There was some indication that he may have threatened her before, and those messages would have been on the phone. So, it is suspected that taking away the phone would have allowed him to cover the evidence,” Smith explained. When asked whether the pair had previously lived together, Smith declined to comment further, noting that additional details would be released at a scheduled press briefing on Monday.
For Funez’s grieving family, the shooting has left an irreparable hole, but they hold out hope that a full investigation will deliver the justice they are seeking. “My sister-in-law was a very loving person, hard working and she used to live for her kids. That I can tell anyone,” Trapp said. As the community processes the shock of the killing, investigators continue to piece together the full sequence of events that led to the fatal attack.