A Guatemalan national from Melchor, 22-year-old Juan Noe Suchita, is the man who Belize Police say gunned down a shop assistant in Benque Viejo Town on Monday night. 36-year-old Jesus Ponce was killed inside Rosy’s Store during an armed robbery. Suchita forced himself into the small family-owned grocery store located on Baron Bliss Street in Benque at approximately 7:15 p.m. and ordered everyone to kneel on the ground.
Inside the store at the time were its owner Abel Silva Sr. and his granddaughter who complied and knelt face down. Silva says the gunman demanded money and so his granddaughter “opened where the money was and he jumped the counter and took it out and put it in his shirt pocket.”
And while Suchita was filling his pocket with the stolen cash, Silva’s long time shop assistant Jesus Ponce entered and made a move for Silva’s licensed twelve gauge pump action shotgun which he brought out from the back of the store. In a rare moment of bravery, Ponce pointed the shotgun at the robber and ordered him to drop his gun. It was a tense few moments which had deadly consequences for Ponce because he struggled with the gun and when he did press the trigger, it didn’t fire because the safety was on. The gunman then opened fire at Ponce, shooting him in the right eye, right side of the chest, right arm and left leg.
He was gasping for breath when Rosa Juan, the daughter of the store owner, found him in a pool of his own blood on the store’s floor. He was taken to the San Ignacio Hospital but died on arrival.
The search for his killer ended on Wednesday afternoon when police pulled the body of Guatemalan national Juan Noe Suchita, 22, out of the Mopan River. A diver found him in the river some 300 yards from the water pump area of Benque. He had a small cut wound on the right eye and he had a .38 revolver tied around his neck. Witnesses have confirmed to police that Suchita was the man who shot and killed Jesus Ponce during the robbery. He is a Guatemalan national and only had his Guatemalan cedula on him which is a small identification card bearing his particulars. His body was taken to the KHMH morgue where it awaits a post mortem. Police, however, don’t suspect foul play. They believe that while fleeing, Suchita fell and hit his head on the ground. He then attempted to cross the river but didn’t make it.
