Six charged for kidnapping, beating in Shipyard

Published by BBNTEAM at July 7, 2021

Posted: Wednesday, July 7, 2021. 9:23 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: There was an unusual event on Monday evening in the normally quiet village of Shipyard, Orange Walk District.

Around 4:45 in the afternoon, police headed to Camp 18 in the village and acting on information on the ground moved on to Camp 40, where they found a white Ford F-150 pickup leaving the residence. Police stopped the vehicle and began to search those inside, identified respectively as Shipyard residents Johan Petkau, 41; Jacob Petkau, 32; George Petkau, 25; Franz Petkau, 18; a minor, 17; and Angel Ayala, 18, of August Pine Ridge, Orange Walk.

Police did not find anything incriminating in the vehicle, but then they were tipped off that someone had been kidnapped who was living nearby. Directed there, they found Abram Andres, 20, of Camp 40, who reported that about two hours earlier he had been set upon at his workplace Central Meat Distributors in the village, beaten up and forcibly taken into the vehicle and driven to Camp 19, the residence of Jacob Petkau, where he was further punched, kicked and whipped with a thick black electrical cable, leaving significant injuries. He was then dumped on the roadside at Camp 40.

Today, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams would not detail the motive for the incident, describing it only as “an issue between the kidnappee and [the kidnappers].”

“Exceptional” police work, said the Commissioner, led to the detention and charges against all six persons named, and they were reported to have been brought to court this afternoon. The F-150 pickup used in the incident is now impounded as exhibit.

Andres, a butcher by trade, was sent to Northern Regional Hospital in Orange Walk Town with swollen eyes and face, numerous bruises to his back and legs from the cable and other beating and a fractured left cheek bone. He is now in treatment.

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