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7 shots for 8-year-old boy on Fabers Road

General7 shots for 8-year-old boy on Fabers Road
Each time citizens of this beleaguered city feel that they have seen the worst that killers can do, another murder more outrageous than the last is committed.
  
On Friday, July 9, around 12:36 p.m., three masked men shot a 48-year-old man, and then chased an 8-year-old child; as the child fell in a puddle of water, the gunman reportedly leaned over him and shot him dead, multiple bullets piercing the child’s body.
  
The minor, Marquis Mahler, 8, primary school student of St. John Vianney and resident of # 40 Fabers Road, was shot seven times, while Calvin Graham, 48, a Belize City Council sanitation worker, was shot three times.
  
The horrific scene was played out inside and outside the yard at #40 Fabers Road.
  
Graham, who was stationed in the vicinity of Fabers Road for work on Friday, had entered Mahler’s yard for reasons unknown to his family, and when he came out of the yard, a 4-door dark green/blue car, Ford Escort, with three masked men inside, intercepted him and started shooting at him.
  
“The man was just riding out of the yard when this car pulled up and honked at him three times; he must’ve thought they were just hailing him, and so he stopped and turned to see who it was,” said a witness.
  
Reports from different witnesses confirmed that Graham was on his bike and by the time he had reached the street, the car had driven up in front of Mahler’s home. A masked man who had a shotgun-looking firearm in his possession came out of the back door of the car, they said.
  
The masked man first shot Graham in the chest. In a frantic attempt to escape, Graham, who was still on his bicycle, tried to ride away, but was shot twice more, once in his arm and then in the leg. He was able to cross the street on his bike, but then he collapsed to the ground.
  
Graham died while undergoing surgery at the hospital at 1:30 p.m.
  
“When she [Mahler’s aunt] saw the person come out of the vehicle, she yelled ‘masked man,’ Mahler’s mother, Delia Lewis, 38, of the same address told us.
  
Apparently, the gunman who was out of the vehicle firing at Graham, was satisfied that the first victim appeared to be dead.
  
The gunman was standing outside the family yard, which is somewhat fenced but does not have a gate, when he shot Graham. He then turned to Mahler, who had been playing in the yard and was about 60 feet from the fence, and began shooting at him. Eyewitnesses said that the minor, trying to escape the gunfire, ran to the back of the yard, where he slipped and fell into a puddle of water. The gunman had followed the child, however, and shot him multiple times as he lay on the ground.
  
Mahler was shot once in the right chest area, right thigh, in the left lower buttocks and once in the right arm; doctors have since ruled that it was seven bullet wounds. Mahler’s twin brothers, who were on the steps, and aunt ran for safety inside the upstairs house.
   
“My baby must have gotten so frightened; I guess he turned to run and got the first in his buttocks,” Lewis told us.
  
“My baby’s hopeless body couldn’t do nothing and they still stand over him, like intentional, you know; he is just an innocent child,” the mother said.
  
“The doctors even said how could a baby have seven bullets in him, seven?” Marie Lewis, Mahler’s grandmother, said.
  
Doctors are of the belief that after the post-mortem, more bullets might be recovered.
  
Delia Lewis, the child’s mother, who is employed at Belize Telemedia Limited, had just left her home, driven by her common-law-husband, Mahler’s father, Theodore Mahler, a taxi operator of the same address.
  
“I didn’t even really get to work good enough before I got a call stating that a baby got shot and my mind just went on him, cause I knew that I left him outside [in the yard],” said Lewis.
  
As if in a trance, the mother recalled her last interaction with her son.
           
“Before I left for work, I told him to tell one of my nieces to pick in the clothes off the line so it don’t get wet, and he said, ‘Yes mommy.’”
  
Mahler, the mother told us, was her sweet-baby-boy: “He loved cooking with me; he loved helping me do everything. He would always come ask me if I needed help with anything. He used to be in charge of the washing machine. I could depend on him to put in the softener, or watch the machine for me.”
  
“I can’t say anything. I can’t tell you how I feel. How the family feels. How could anybody do that to a helpless child?” the mother wanted to know.
  
Mahler was lifted from the puddle of water by his older brother, 20, and rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he immediately underwent what was supposed to be the first of many surgeries to save his life.
  
Graham, the other shooting victim, a father of seven children, had just gotten a contract from the Belize Sanitation Department about a month ago, and reportedly was returning to his work station on Fabers Road, after running a quick errand, when he was murdered.
  
 “His daughter came about 12:30 p.m. to say that they just shot her daddy,” Elizabeth Graham, 37, a niece of the deceased told us.
  
“According to the understanding I get, a vehicle just passed and started to shoot up. My uncle is from his work to his home; he does not believe in violence. He is a nice person.
  
Graham was the only sibling alive, as the Graham family was just recovering from the death of his sister, which occurred last week of natural causes.
  
“Anywhere you go, he is right there with his children. He loved his children; he was a good and devoted father to them,” said the niece.
  
Young Mahler’s father, Theodore, explained to us that he has no knowledge of Graham or his business in their yard, and concluded that there was no connection between any of the shootings.
  
The minor, who had just graduated to standard three, was doing okay in the hospital as far as the doctors were concerned on Friday.
           
“I don’t know if it’s negligence at the hospital because they told me that my baby was going to be okay. If he is critical, why is he in pediatric ward? The doctors said he didn’t have any organs punctured,” said the mother.
  
Mahler, after being operated on, on Friday was placed in the pediatric ward of the hospital, according to the family, and it wasn’t until Saturday morning when the family visited him that they noticed his hands and feet were cold.
  
A nurse, the mother explained, told her that it was due to the loss of blood, which contributed to his cooler body temperature.
  
Marquis was pronounced dead a little after noon on Saturday, July 10. About thirty minutes before his death was pronounced, Lewis said that a nurse had approached her saying, “Miss, I won’t lie to you – your baby’s heart stopped beating and they are trying to get it back.”
  
Oddly, while the child was dying, his father, Theodore, was also fleeing for his life, as reports suggested that on Saturday, a little after noon, he had reported to police that residents of his neighborhood had fired shots at him.
  
Theodore told us that the same individuals, who he claims are residents of the same neighborhood and are the ones the family believes are responsible for his son’s and Graham’s murders, had passed a remark on Friday to him.
           
“On Friday, I passed by these two brothers’ house and one of them was out front drinking a stout, and he took the drink and in a ‘brush motion,’ told me, ‘Multiples fuh you.’”
  
The police have since detained three individuals for the Saturday, July 10, shooting on Fabers Road, but no one has been arrested in connection to the Friday, July 9, shooting on Fabers Road.
  
The police, responding to the report of the Saturday shooting, had gone to the home of the suspects, two of whom are brothers, and detained both, along with a third man.
  
“When the police were passing the Mahlers’ family home, they slowed down and the window went down and one of the guys pointed to me, signaling to me with his finger. I take that to mean that it’s me next, so I am afraid for my life, and to tell you the truth, if I were to see any of them, I don’t even know how they look,” the child’s mother stated.
  
A report to Amandala is that one of the individuals in police detention is allegedly the one whom the Piperspburgh family is claiming is responsible for Niesa Pipersburgh’s homicide.
   
On Friday, police recovered from the scene of the shooting: (15) .223 expended shells; (6) .9mm shells, (1) of Lugar brand and the other five of Aguila brand; along with a blue and grey bicycle with blood stains. The weapon used is believed to be an assault rifle, but police are not saying, as yet, exactly what weapon it is.
  
Mahler’s mother said that her son had spoken to her on Friday, while in the hospital.
           
“They [nurses and doctors] didn’t want him to fall asleep, so I went in to talk to him. I said ‘Marquis’ and he opened his eyes and said ‘Mommy?’ I said ‘Yes baby, mommy is right here with you,’ then he said to me ‘Mommy, my belly di hurt,’ and that was the last thing my baby said to me.”
  
“How am I supposed to sleep tonight? I can’t sleep; he sleeps with me every night,” Mahler’s 20-year-old brother stated.
  
Sources to Amandala have said that neither Mahler nor Graham was the real target, and that the murders are in retaliation for a murder that had occurred a couple months ago.

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