Two families in Orange Walk are mourning tonight after robberies turned deadly, leaving a community shaken and searching for answers. In one case, a delivery truck driver was shot and killed while on the job. In another, an elderly man was brutally murdered inside his own home on a farm near Santa Martha Village. Both crimes unfolded within days of each other, and both ended with lives cut short in cold blood. As loved ones prepare to lay their family members to rest, fear and grief ripple across the district. News Five’s Shane Williams has more on the violence that has rocked Orange Walk.
Ladrick Shepherd
Ladrick Shepherd, Mayor, Orange Walk Town
“This is like a dark cloud over Orange Walk the pass couple days. It is something that is unusual. It is something that never happens in Orange Walk.”
Roberto Villafranco
That cloud grew darker on Tuesday afternoon, when what should have been a routine delivery turned deadly on Chan Pine Ridge Road for Zeta Water delivery men. Forty-two-year-old Roberto Villafranco and his coworker, Felipe Vasquez, were on duty delivering Zeta Purified Water when they responded to a call for a delivery in the area.
Eliezer Escalante
Eliezer Escalante, Route Supervisor, Zeta Water
“As to the information that we have and through the store front, yes they were called out. They used a private number at the initial time. The first time that they called, they didn’t give any name. They didn’t want to give any number, so we did not log the call but this was a direct on the phone that we give the sales person to be carrying with them. So at that time, that phone was here charging during his lunch break. So that call wasn’t logged, like I said, so when he came back he got his phone and apparently, I would assume that he got the call back again for the delivery.”
Investigators believe the call may have been a setup. When the men arrived, a masked man holding an empty five-gallon bottle flagged them down. Moments later, gunshots rang out.
Eliezer Escalante
“I was the one that received the first call here at the store. Someone called explaining that one of our trucks were, was robbed. That was the word that they used and that one of our workers had didn’t make it. The other one was receiving treatment at a nearby gas station for the gunshot wound that he received. So my initial thing was I just rushed over to the scene.”
Reporter
“What was it like when you got there, in terms of seeing everything?
Eliezer Escalante
“Disbelief! That’s about it. Really just stayed blank and lost for words.” 1:51
One employee lived to tell the story. The other never made it out. As gunfire erupted, Vasquez was hit while trying to escape but survived. Villafranco was not as fortunate. He was shot inside the company truck and died at the scene, cut down while simply doing his job. Villafranco had spent four years with Zeta, building a routine around deliveries that ended in tragedy. Now, the company is left grappling with a question that doesn’t make sense to them: why target delivery workers at all? Zeta officials say their drivers don’t carry large sums of cash or valuable items, making the robbery both brutal and baffling.
Eliezer Escalante
“Mr. Roberto Villafranco, he was here with us for four years. What I can say about Mr. Villafranco, he was a very dedicated person to his work. He countless times mentioned that he loved what he did. He saw himself here for quite some time. So he didn’t plan to leave anytime soon. That’s what he said. He is very humble, hardworking, dedicated.”
Francisco Perfecto Garcia
Shane Williams
“Can you tell us about the nature of these deliveries? Are they – do the individuals have a lot of cash on them or is it something that make them targets?”
Eliezer Escalante
“It’s not something that I would say that targetable because these guys don’t make much selling these five gallons. It’s just, we deliver at the cost of three dollars. The most that they are taking is sixty gallons. So the amount of cash that these guys have are very minimal.”
This wasn’t the only senseless robbery-turned-homicide to rock the district this week. A little over twenty-four hours earlier, police made a grisly discovery off Santa Martha Road. Seventy-year-old Francisco Perfecto Garcia was found dead a distance away from home with multiple chop wounds. For Mayor Shepherd, the killing is especially difficult to process.
Ladrick Shepherd
“Mr. Francisco Garcia, better known as – he has a nickname “Sac Sac”. I knew him because I used to work at BSI. He was a little older than me. When I was there, I was a young guy working at BSI and I use to know him because my first job was on pan floor. My first boss was Mr. Johnson so he was up there and he was giving me advice and telling me exactly what to do. So like I said, I’m very close to him. I know him from working at BSI for quite a while, very humble and nice person. And willing to do and get the job done. So like I said, I had fond memories and great time with the gentleman and especially with his entire family and I just hope that we continue having that in our mind. Like I said, deepest condolences to the entire family and especially and over Orange Walk I must tell the people that we must rest assure that the police will look into it and we are safe when we have the police looking over this situation.”
As police press on with their investigations, families are left to pick up the pieces. We spoke with the Garcia family as they began planning a funeral no one was ready for. His son, Adin, says the family had just celebrated his father’s seventieth birthday on April eighteenth, spending the day together by the river. Those moments now mean everything to them; his only regret is not taking a single photo to capture it. Shane Williams for News Five.
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