The victim, 54, was on his way home when he was shot in the abdomen by a lone gunman

At approximately 11:20 p.m. yesterday, Monday, July 28, a well-known repairman was killed on Victoria Street.

Residents of the area heard one shot, and when they checked, they saw Winston Whylie, 54, lying on the ground beside his bicycle in front of Fabro’s Glass Shop, with an apparent gunshot wound to his midsection.

Whylie, who was known to spend his time on Lovely Lane, just off Victoria Street, fixing bikes and assorted appliances, was shot for no apparent reason by a lone gunman as he was making his way home, and today, Amandala spoke to his sister, Wilma Thompson Whylie.

She said, “Police came to my house before 2:00 and took us to the hospital, but when we got there, he was already dead. I heard that the doctors were trying hard to help him, but he didn’t make it.”

She said that she is at a loss as to why anyone would want to kill the longtime bicycle repairman, since he frequented the neighborhood in which he was shot on a daily basis for many years, so much so, that he had become a fixture in the Lovely Lane area.

Whylie’s sister explained that he would normally spend the day at his home on Police Street Extension every day fixing either washing machines, television sets, fans, or bicycles, but in the evening, he would head to Lovely Lane to earn a little extra money before returning home between 10:00 p.m. and midnight.

Wilma explained that his relatives are struggling to cope with the loss, because Whylie was like a father figure who always helped out his family in any way he could, and was very close to his mother, with whom he lived.

The family is even more devastated because they have been plagued by tragedy since May of this year, when Whylie’s siblings, Francine Francis, 12, and Herman Williams, Jr., 7, were both badly injured after being knocked down by a vehicle which didn’t stop and render aid. The accident occurred when they were riding home on their bicycles after school on Mahogany Street on Thursday, May 15.

Then, about 1:30 on the morning of May 25, Whylie’s brother, taxi driver Norman Stanley Thompson, 57, was ambushed and murdered by gunmen after dropping off three passengers in the alley between Logwood Street and Banak Street, at the rear of the Habet and Habet compound on Cemetery Road.

Thompson was found slumped over the steering wheel of his green 4-door Geo Prism taxi; he had been shot twice in the right upper shoulder and once in the right side of the upper back.

Two 9mm Aguila expended shells were retrieved from the scene; however, no one has yet been arrested for that murder.

Winston Whylie’s colleagues from the Lovely Lane area believe that he was targeted by a gunman because the culprit did not find his intended victim, as was the case in the murders of Alfonso Cruz, 57, which took place in Rhaburn’s Alley off North Front Street in Belize City on April 12, 2014, and Julio Mendez, 59, who, like Whylie, also lived on Police Street Extension. Mendez was callously shot in the head while playing dominoes under a house on Racoon Street Extension in Belize City three weeks ago on Friday, July 11.

While police have detained a number of persons for questioning, no arrest has been made in either of those two senseless killings.

According to police, Whylie was riding his bicycle from Lovely Lane onto Victoria Street, heading towards New Road, when suddenly, he was approached by a stout, dark-complexioned man, dressed in a gray and black undershirt, who rode from the direction of New Road on a bicycle and shot him once.

Whylie, who had no children, is not known to be gang-affiliated, or a troublemaker, said his family, and police are still trying to establish a motive for the murder.

Of note is that Whylie was implicated in a homicide that took place on Lovely Lane in the early 1990’s; however, he was acquitted of the charge after being on remand for some time at the Belize Central Prison.