分类： society

For more than ten years, Herman Freisen has been a familiar face at Belize City’s Michael Finnegan Market, building his business connecting small-scale farmers from Little Belize directly to local consumers. But in a sudden turn of events, new restrictions imposed by the Belize City Council have pushed the veteran vendor out of his longtime spot, forcing an unexpected relocation that threatens the livelihoods of more than a dozen agricultural producers he works with.

Freisen told local reporters that prior to the new rule, he was allowed to sell his stock of fresh produce through both wholesale and retail transactions at the market, with weekend retail sales making up a critical portion of his monthly revenue. “On Saturdays we used to come and sell retail to the people. But now they cut it and said we cannot sell any more retail,” Freisen explained in an interview.

The restriction, which limits Freisen to only wholesale operations at the site, did not come with a transition period to help him adjust. He requested a short grace period to notify his regular customers of the upcoming change, but his appeal was denied. With no option to continue his existing business model at Michael Finnegan Market, Freisen made the decision to move his entire operation to the city’s Pound Yard Market, completing the relocation just last week.

The vendor pushed back against unconfirmed complaints that triggered the restriction, noting that his pricing for fresh produce has consistently aligned with what other vendors at the market charge. Beyond the disruption to his own income, Freisen emphasized that the change will hit the more than 12 Little Belize farmers who rely on him to sell their harvest to consumers. Without retail sales to move their produce, the farmers face a significant drop in revenue that could jeopardize their small operations.

Local outlet News 5 has contacted Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner to request the council’s reasoning for the new restriction and comment on Freisen’s case. A response is anticipated following the council’s caucus meeting scheduled for the same day the story broke, and viewers are invited to tune into News 5 Live at 6 p.m. local time for further updates on the developing situation.

On the evening of April 21, 2026, the U.S. state of Florida is set to carry out the execution of 58-year-old Chadwick Scott Willacy, a man convicted of a brutal 1990 homicide that shook the community of Palm Bay. The convicted inmate will receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison, located near Starke, at 6:00 p.m. local time, marking the fifth state-sponsored execution in Florida this year.

Willacy’s conviction dates back to 1991, when a jury found him guilty on four counts: first-degree murder, residential burglary, robbery, and arson. Initially, the jury issued a 9-3 recommendation for the death penalty, which the court handed down. Following a court-ordered re-sentencing in 1995, a second jury reaffirmed the capital punishment verdict with an 11-1 vote in favor of death.

Court documents lay out the gruesome details of the crime that took Willacy’s victim, 50-year-old Marlys Sather, in September 1990. Sather, a local resident, returned to her Palm Bay home midday during her lunch break and interrupted Willacy mid-burglary. Prosecutors’ case files show Willacy attacked Sather immediately, striking her skull with a blunt object that caused a fatal fracture. He then bound her hands and feet, attempted to strangle her with a telephone cord, before dousing her body in gasoline and setting her on fire. An official autopsy later confirmed Sather was still alive when the fire was ignited, and her official cause of death was listed as smoke inhalation.

After the attack, authorities say Willacy fled the scene with Sather’s vehicle, multiple personal belongings, and her ATM card, which he used to withdraw cash from her bank account. Sather’s body was not discovered until hours later, when concerned family members went to check on her after she failed to return to her job after lunch.

In the lead-up to the scheduled execution, Willacy’s legal team pursued multiple last-ditch appeals to have the death sentence overturned. The Florida Supreme Court rejected his most recent round of appeals last week, and as of April 21, final appeals were still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

This execution comes amid a marked increase in the use of capital punishment in Florida over the past two years. If carried out as scheduled, it will be the fifth execution the state has conducted in 2026. In 2025 alone, Florida put 19 people to death, the highest annual number of executions the state has carried out since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated states’ right to use capital punishment in 1976.

According to the Florida Department of Corrections, all state executions are carried out via lethal injection using a three-drug protocol: the first acts as a sedative to render the inmate unconscious, the second is a paralytic agent to relax muscle groups, and the third stops cardiac function. Following this execution, Florida already has another lethal injection scheduled for April 30.

Nearly two months after a late-night shooting left a 26-year-old man wounded in Belize City, law enforcement officials have formally filed attempted murder charges against an 18-year-old local resident tied to the incident.

The accused, identified as James Saldano, a resident of Belize City, faces three total criminal counts in connection with the attack: attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm, and grievous harm. The charges were announced by Belizean police on April 21, 2026.

The violent incident that sparked the charges unfolded on the evening of Thursday, March 5. Just after 11:30 p.m. that night, first responders from the Belize Police Department were dispatched to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where the victim, 26-year-old Tyrel Andrewin, was already receiving treatment for multiple gunshot wounds.

In a formal statement to investigators following the attack, Andrewin detailed the circumstances of the shooting. He told officers he was sitting inside a parked Hyundai sedan on Plues Street when another vehicle, part of a multi-car caravan, pulled up alongside his car. According to Andrewin’s account, a passenger from that approaching vehicle drew a firearm and fired multiple shots directly toward him, inflicting the injuries that led to his hospital visit.

As of the announcement of the charges, police have not released additional details about a possible motive for the attack, nor have they indicated whether other suspects are being sought in connection with the shooting. The case remains an active investigation as legal proceedings against Saldano move forward.

On a routine Tuesday evening patrol in Belize’s Lord’s Bank Village, a joint operation by two specialized police units led to the seizure of a loaded firearm and the arrest of a local 19-year-old, authorities confirmed.

The incident unfolded shortly before 6 p.m. on Manta Ray Boulevard, when officers from the GI-3 tactical unit and the Quick Response Team (QRT) pulled over two men who were traveling on individual bicycles. According to Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith, who spoke about the case during a subsequent press briefing held on Monday, the two men behaved in a manner that immediately raised law enforcement officers’ suspicions.

“After intercepting the pair, our team made the decision to conduct a pat-down search of both individuals to rule out any public safety threats,” Smith explained during the briefing. That search yielded a critical discovery: a loaded Smith and Wesson 9mm semi-automatic pistol hidden on 19-year-old Giovannie Gillet. The weapon’s magazine was fully loaded with nine live rounds of ammunition, meaning the gun was ready for immediate use.

Following the seizure, authorities processed Gillet through the legal system and formally filed two criminal charges against him: unlawful possession of a firearm without a valid license, and unlawful possession of ammunition without a license. The second individual who was stopped alongside Gillet was not arrested or charged in connection with the incident, and police have not yet released additional details about whether that person is connected to any ongoing investigations.

The arrest comes as part of ongoing targeted police patrol operations across low-income and high-traffic communities in the region, designed to get illegal firearms off the streets and prevent violent crime before it occurs. Law enforcement officials have emphasized that routine stops and proactive patrols remain one of the most effective tools for reducing gun-related violence in residential areas.