BELIZE CITY, Wed. Aug. 5, 2015–The respite that the city was enjoying from gun violence was shattered this morning just before 11:00 when gunfire erupted in the Jane Usher Boulevard area. Two youths were shot and had to be rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) for treatment.
Raheem Arnold, 22, and Shamar Moore, 17, were shot during separate shooting incidents that occurred minutes apart.
This afternoon police held a press briefing on the shootings. Superintendent Hilberto Romero, the officer commanding CIB Eastern Division said, “Shamar Moore was shot in the right arm, left armpit, left foot and in the left upper leg. Raheem Arnold was shot in the left pelvic area. They are both hospitalized at the KHMH and in a stable condition. We have our investigators out there and there are two suspects that we are presently seeking for this shooting.”
Romero said that the two were on the street in the Jane Usher Boulevard area when they got into an argument with some persons in the area.
“One was shot first, and then as he was going to his grandmother’s house, the other person was shot,” Romero said.
Romero, however, was unable to say whether the shootings were gang-related.
“We are still working to establish that. We know that they are from that general Jane Usher Boulevard area,” he explained.
Also, police could not say, as yet, what was the motive behind the shooting.
Romero said police believe that the same persons were involved in the two shootings.
One area resident who spoke to Amandala on condition of anonymity, said that she had gone to look for her brother-in-law and her sister.
“I just left ‘Footy’ at the gate fixing his bicycle and went to borrow his phone to listen to music and he told me to wait, he would get the phone for me,” the resident said.
She explained that there was a loud clap of thunder and said that after the thunder sounded, “we were about to dash under the bed. After the thunder was over, we heard a series of shots and when we ran through the door, my sister ran out in a towel.”
She said that when they opened the back gate, they saw that it was “Footy” who had been shot, but had managed to run away.
“We saw the boy that had a gun run straight up the street, with the gun in his hand,” the resident said.
“The shooter ran in the bush where Footy had run, and he fired a lot of shots, but only one caught him on the side of the leg. He was crying out for help. So me and another person took Footy out of the bush, so someone could take him to the hospital,” the resident explained.
Another person went down the street to take a look – apparently in an attempt to render aid to “Footy”— but when he did so, they fired at him and he got shot in his hand, his leg, and his hand and underneath his arm. He also sustained a fracture in one of his legs.
Our source told us that several people on the street witnessed the shooting, and as many as eight shots were fired.
Police said they recovered three expended shells from the area.