Inmate in Critical Condition After Prison Escape Attempt Ends in Shooting

An inmate at the Belize Central Prison was shot this morning while attempting to escape. Just after nine o’clock, a tower guard observed Nyrere Parchue in a prohibited area on the prison grounds.  According to the Director of the Belize Central Prison, Virgilio Murillo, the 30-year-old inmate was given multiple verbal warnings to return to his designated area, but he refused to comply. Parchue continued moving forward, jumping into the water ditch, making his way to the fence. Officers fired several warning shots, but he continued to scale the fence. Upon reaching the top of the fence, prison guards opened fire, hitting him in the head and neck. Parchue was taken via ambulance to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he is currently listed in critical condition. Director Murillo says that under the Prison Act, guards are allowed to shoot inmates if necessary to stop an escape, but it is regrettable that Parchue was injured in that way.

Virgilio Murillo, Director, Belize Central Prison: “Of course it’s always  regrettable when a prisoner gets shot as a whole. The idea is to try and get him back without causing any harm.  But, you know, the distance from where the tower is to where the fence is, you have to make that calculated decision. What do you want? Do you want the person to escape and go and wreak havoc in the society and put the society in danger? Or you want to secure him or prevent him from escaping and let him serve with his sentence. You never want to injure a prisoner. That’s not the idea and that is why warning shots were fired. I think seven warning shots being fired and the person doesn’t take heed, you know, that definitely shows that we exercise restraint for the most part. It’s just when he was all the way on top of the fence looking to go over to the next side, it is at that point that they made a, the guard made a decision to fire that shot towards his feet. However, the recoil of the weapon, like I said, caused the weapon to go high. And I guess that is what happened, unfortunately.”

Parchue was serving a three-month sentence for drug possession and damage to property and only had one more month before his release. Murilo says that up until the attempt, Parchue had shown no signs that he was high-risk for escape.

Virgilio Murillo, Director, Belize Central Prison: “We could not have foreseen that he would have made such a decision. He’s been here since the 21st of July, I think that’s what the information shows. We’re already at the 12th of August and yeah, there were no telltale signs that he was  an escape risk, so to speak.  His criminal history does not even indicate that he has had any escapes in the past. He was only doing three months based on what I’m seeing on the paper now. Yeah, he was only doing three months. He was admitted on July 21st and his actual date of release is literally September the 20th, which is exactly three months. I haven’t the slightest clue why an inmate with only a three-month sentence would even want to venture in that fashion. The only person that can answer that question would be him.  I personally can’t say what was going through his mind based on my medical officer’s feedback she says that she saw nothing in the health system program to show that he was psychiatric any at all. So only God knows why he would have made such a decision.”

Just last month, Parchue pleaded guilty to harming an 8-year-old child on July 21.  Earlier in the month, he had pleaded guilty to three traffic offenses.  The magistrate levied fines for all the offences, but Parchue was unable to make the necessary downpayment and was already indebted to the court due to previous charges.  Interestingly, in last month’s court case, Parchue’s mother did express to the court that the family is in fear when he is around.  Parchue also appears in our news archives back in 2018 when he was shot to the head.