Doctor Gunned Down While Taking Daughter to School in Belmopan

Despite an earlier promise from Police Minister and Belmopan Area Representative Oscar Mira to protect the nation’s capital from escalating gun violence, another productive resident has been murdered in Belmopan.  36-year-old Dr. Naun Ulices Bonilla was targeted and killed as he was driving his five-year-old daughter to school.  Our Belmopan correspondent was on the scene this morning where a barrage of gunshots disrupted an area in Las Flores.  Here is his report.

Ljay Wade, Cayo Correspondent: A brazen daylight shooting in the Belmopan has left one doctor dead and his young daughter traumatized. Shortly after 8 o’clock this morning residents in the Las Flores area reported hearing as many as 13 gunshots near the corner of Raccoon and Maravilles Avenue. When resident of the area rushed to the crime scene they found the lifeless body of Dr. Nuan Bonilla slumped over the steering wheel of his vehicle, with his daughter screaming in the back seat. Reports indicate that Dr. Bonilla was on his way to drop his daughter off at school when he was targeted. According to eyewitnesses the doctor had just left his home with his daughter when a white SUV allegedly intercepted his vehicle allowing a lone masked gunman to open fire in his direction. 

Witness: “The guy come off the street from where he lived there on Montalvo and the vehicle was behind him and the vehicle went to the front and the gunman came out and let out about thirteen shots and went down the street over there, the next street, and I just tried running to the vehicle and check if the guy was alive but when we reached there he was dead on the spot. So it’s just that right there, it’s just unfortunate. It looks like they were following the guy because as he came out, he literally just came off of the street.”

Ljay Wade, Cayo Correspondent: Dr. Bonilla’s young daughter was in a backseat of the vehicle at the time of the gruesome murder but thankfully she was unharmed. City council workers who were in the area at the time quickly rushed to the vehicle and removed Bonilla’s daughter from the crime scene. Bonilla was a well-known doctor in the capital and Valley of Peace who dedicated his life to caring for people. Dr. Bonilla spent the last eight years working at Belmopan’s Medical Imaging Centre as their internist. Dr. Virginia Smith, the Centre’s Director, says that Bonilla was one of their best doctors who touched the lives of all his patients. 

Dr. Virginia Smith, Director: “My staff were extremely saddened as in addition to being our main clinician, he was a very dear friend to every member of the staff. Observing him from my side I saw not just any ordinary young doctor. I saw a doctor that was extremely dedicated, charismatic, compassionate, kind, extremely knowledgeable. The special thing that I saw about him was that he would spend an entire hour with each one his patients. Going over their history, allowing them to talk as much as they wanted to. Of course going over their clinical details reviewing their labs and him giving them his advice was the special part that people loved about him. He was a very good clinician here and a very good friend to everybody here in this clinic. Crime and violence of this type has no part in any aspect of the Belizean society. In addition and more so we are shocked that it has touched the medical community. I think there’s no words for it, this should not happen. We pray that we can get some answers for this horrible crime.”

Ljay Wade, Cayo Correspondent: But what could have led to this latest murder? Why would anyone take the life of a well-known and respected doctor especially in front of his young daughter? Police say they’re following two leads. 

Stacy Smith, Assistant Superintendent of Police: “Police have retrieved a number of video footage which we believe will be of use to this ongoing investigation. The investigators are also following up on two leads as it relates to motive, neither of which suggests Dr. Bonilla’s involvement in the nefarious activities.”
Ljay Wade, Cayo Correspondent: Bonilla was currently in the middle of a civil case with one of his business partners, but the police department was reluctant to disclose whether or not those facts formed part of their investigation.

The killing comes months after Police Minister Oscar Mira publicly warned criminal elements to stay out of Belmopan following the January murder of businessman Mark Gabourel. At that time, Mira stated that he would not allow the capital city to become crime-ridden and highlighted the presence of an estimated thirty surveillance cameras operating throughout Belmopan and its outskirts as part of ongoing security efforts.