BELIZE CITY, Fri. June 26, 2015–Tarique Thompson, 15, a 2nd form student of Canaan High School, today unfortunately succumbed to gunshot wounds he suffered while making his way home at around 8:30 on Monday night in Belize City.

The teenager was walking on Lakeview Street, heading to his home on Sibun Street, which is just one block away, when he was targeted by a pair of gunmen, one of whom was reportedly wearing a fisherman’s hat.

Thompson was shot in the head and neck and was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), where he remained in an induced coma until around 12:00 p.m. today, when he died after clinging to life for three and a half days.

His family maintained that he was a gentle, kind and mannerly young man who was not involved in any of the gang activities that took place in his neighborhood, which lies on the fringes of the nearby gang turf known as “Ghost Town”, and therefore, did not deserve such a violent, horrible fate.

Police had initially detained three persons pending investigation, but have not indicated whether any of those individuals will face charges for Thompson’s murder.

Meanwhile, another teenaged student who was shot in the same vicinity less than 72 hours after the shooting of Thompson, is currently reportedly brain dead in the Intensive Care Unit of the KHMH.

Ruben Leslie, 16, a 1st form student of Wesley College, was shot in the forehead and right leg shortly before 10:00 on Wednesday night at the Corner of Magazine Road and Banak Street.

Leslie was riding his bicycle on Magazine Road on his way home when a gunman came out from a nearby yard and fired several shots in his direction when he approached the corner with Banak Street.

Both incidents are believed to be gang-related; however, no one has since been detained for Leslie’s shooting.