Belize City Businessman murdered in Apparent Hit

The second murder of the weekend took place on Saturday night in Belize City and is believed to have been a hit. Around 11:30, twenty-eight-year-old, Ricardo Borja and his girlfriend came under attack on the north side.  The businessman had just arrived in front of this home behind the Body 2000, and upon shutting down his pickup, they heard gunshots ring out.  According to Police, Borjas was dead before he could have exited his Nissan pickup truck.  Meanwhile, his girlfriend, 23-year-old, Jean Reyes sustained injuries to her elbow. Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, says that investigators are looking into various angles but are yet to establish a motive.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “At the time Ricardo Borjas was in the company of a female who we believe is his girlfriend. She sustained one graze and was treated and released. At this time we don’t have a motive for that particular incident but we’re looking at several different angles with that investigation. We’re getting several information that are negative towards him in terms of his involvement with different activities but I am not going to go into details of those and yes it could be that it is one of those that may have led to his death and so we are looking at every possible angle that we can pursue in respect to this matter.”

In 2016, Borjas was charged on two separate occasions for theft. However, despite the charges Borjas was able to obtain firearm licenses for two guns. The Commissioner was asked to explain the issuance of two licenses to a convicted criminal.   

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “I think the accusations of criminal fraud came after the issuance of the gun license. Again-”

Reporter: So he got gun licenses from when he was in sixth form ? 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “No.”

Reporter: Those accusations came against him when he was a sixth form student.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “I’m not too sure about that but like you said he is a business man or he was a business man, he owned a consultancy and I think he was also engaged in real estate and he did apply for a gun license and I can tell you I was the one who approved those gun licenses. He did produce all the requisite documents and proof that he owns a business and was generating funds and so he would have fallen within the category of those persons and in addition to that there is no conviction that he had for any crime. Yes there are accusations like there are always accusations made against people but again he was never taken to court on those accusations. There are many persons who have been accused for committing crime and they were acquitted and they do get gun license. Again I don’t want to rehash this gun license thing we have to look at what people are engaged in. Certainly the young man did produce good credentials of being a legitimate businessman engaged in different activities businesswise and based on that in my judgment I issued the gun license. I have no remorse in issuing that. It’s not like he had used the licensed firearm to commit a crime. He in this case is the victim of a crime and I don’t think we should vilify him for that no.”

Borjas appears in our archives as being involved in multiple scamming reports, and was charged back in 2016 for stealing six thousand dollars from an employer.