A family in San Jose Village is living through an unimaginable tragedy tonight. Fifty-two-year-old Eusebio Tzub is dead, and police have charged his twenty-four-year-old son, Leonardo Tzub, with his murder. Investigators say Leonardo attacked his father with a machete at their family home on Wednesday afternoon. Eusebio suffered multiple injuries and later died at the Punta Gorda Hospital. As relatives mourn a devoted father and respected community member, police are examining every aspect of the deadly encounter, including reports that the accused may have been facing mental health challenges. ACP Hilberto Romero has the latest.
Hilberto Romero
ACP Hilberto Romero, Head, National Crime Investigation Branch
“Information is that Eusebio Tzub was at his yard in San Jose when he was approached by his son, Leonardo Tzub, who inflicted several chop wounds to him. He was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. An investigation was carried out, and we have since arrested and charged Leonardo Tzub, twenty-two years, for the crime of murder.”
Reporter
“Any motive established?”
ACP Hilberto Romero
“He erratic, unusual behavior, and he usually threaten his family, and that day, he got a machete and chopped his father.”
Reporter
“Had the family filed any previous reports?”
ACP Hilberto Romero
“Yes, there are previous reports, and he had been charged in the past for causing harm to one of them.”
Reporter
“Any indication that he would have been suffering mental health challenges?”
ACP Hilberto Romero
“We are following up on that, and we will try to get a report whether he was being treated.”
ACP Romero says the Director of Public Prosecutions decides whether charges involving alleged mental health concerns move forward. In this case, police filed a murder charge.
Leonardo Tzub Accused of Killing His Devoted Father
Relatives remember Eusebio Tzub as a hardworking father who devoted his life to his family. Now, as they mourn his killing, they are also confronting the painful reality that one of his own sons stands accused. Family members allege that the accused had struggled with mental health challenges and displayed violent behavior in the past, but police have not established what triggered the fatal attack. Today, Tzub’s son-in-law recounts what happened and describes the man the family has lost.
On the Phone: Luis Choc, Son-in-Law of Deceased
“I could tell you my father-in-law, he’s a very humble man, respectful man. I know he do his drinking sometime when he do got spare time, but at that moment he is not drinking. They just gone to help one of my brother-in-law to clean the yard and then just reach at home. They do gone da river, bathe with his wife and then reach home. And I said, he do really need to eat something. So they started to find something to eat, and my mother-in-law do started to cook something for him. And while he is sitting outside, where the attacker, the attacker do reach and attack him outside while he is relaxing. He chopped him to head, to his hands, and then after that they left him right there. So that is when she tried to, to help him and carry him in a nearby bush. They Try hide from Leonardo. Before, like call it maybe like six years before. Yes, he do go in a hospital for a checkup, and they say that he do suffer from a mental health. It’s really rough. And make it worse, my mother-in-law, she’s a diabetic patient, so that makes it like a double. Like it really do hurt, so it kinda hurts right now. So worse when we do get the body later on, I don’t know what with what will happen or what, you know, what will happen. So it really hurts. And but we are trying to bring the family together. All the family, all the daughters are there together, all the, the, the in-laws are there together. So we are trying to cope with each other.”
Choc says they are seeking justice for the death of Eusebio Tzub as do not want to see another tragedy occur should his son remain free.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
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