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Child, 3, dies after gun attack on Gill Street

HeadlineChild, 3, dies after gun attack on Gill Street

Her mother was shot in her buttocks, right lower thigh, hand and abdomen; her father was unhurt

BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 23, 2018– This evening, news coming out of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is that 3-year-old Ethany Bennett had succumbed to her gunshot injury around 5:30 p.m.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a gunman went to #6 Gill Street and fired a barrage of shots at the house. Sleeping inside the plywood house at the time were Roy Bennett, 30; his common-law wife Alva Moody, 28, a clerk at Central American Boulevard Plaza; and their 3-year-old daughter, Ethany Bennett.

While Roy Bennett escaped injury, Moody and their daughter were hit. The 3-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to the right side of her forehead and was admitted to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in a critical condition, while Moody was shot in her buttocks, right lower thigh, hand and abdomen.

Roy Bennett is believed to have been the target of the gunman.

Police reacted to this latest gun attack by putting a temporary police checkpoint a short distance away from the residence at # 6 Gill Street, which was the home of community activist Therese Felix and her children.

Roy Bennett has had several run-ins with the law and has survived more than one shooting incident. In October 2008, Bennett was charged for the murder of Michelle Cattouse after a wild shootout between rival gangs.

In May 2012, Bennett was with Brandon Taylor when a gunman opened fire on them on Central American Boulevard. The gunman missed his two targets, but shot and killed Daniel Matura, 11.

Earlier this year, that gunman, Andrew Willoughby, was convicted of the murder of Matura and is now awaiting sentence from Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Williams.

In December 2013, Bennett was shot in the right side and the friend he was with, Paul Sambual, was shot in the right hand and back when two men who were riding bicycles opened fire on them.

In December 2014, Bennett was busted with controlled drugs and due to his long rap sheet for drug possession, he was sentenced to serve time for possession of a controlled drug. That was his sixth conviction for possession of a controlled drug.

The Felix family has apparently been marked for death, because three members of the family have fallen victim to gun violence.

Faron Felix, 16, was the first to be targeted. On December 7, 2007, Faron went to a shop on Central American Boulevard to make a purchase for his mother, Therese Felix. As he was heading back home on Fabers Road, someone emerged from behind the fence at the basketball court, located at the corner of Central American Boulevard, and opened fire on him. He died on the spot.

Community activists would later tear down the concrete fence and replace it with a mesh wire fence.

Less than one year later, on one of Belize City’s murderous weekends, in May 2008, Tyrone Felix went to a concert. While he was heading home, in the early morning of Sunday,  May 15, Mother’s Day, he was gunned down a short distance from his home.

Therese Felix, who by then had become a community activist and the organizer for Mothers  Against Violence, would die later that same year due to complications from asthma.

Then five years later, on January 7, 2013, death struck again at number #6 Gill Street when a gunman opened fire at the house, hitting Feeshia Felix, 22, multiple times as she lay in her bed asleep. She died in her sleep.

In July 2010, a gunman shot Ryan “Cash” Bennett, a brother of Roy Bennett, 24, as he rode his bicycle at the corner of Fabers Road and Nurse Finley Crescent. Bennett survived. No one was arrested for this shooting.

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