Shortly after 10:00 on Friday night, February 13, a lone BERT ambulance was seen turning off Central American Boulevard, its siren screaming at the night, as it rushed to a crime scene where two men had been shot on West Canal in the never ending epidemic of gun violence that plagues Belize City.
According to police, they were called to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Trauma Room, where they found Calvin “Putta” Nicholas, 36, of #18 Wagner’s Lane, suffering from gunshot wounds. Nicholas was shot in the left side of his chest, on his right arm and right wrist.
Police reported that they also saw Emerson Faber, 43, of #102 George Street, suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper right side of his chest. Faber, before he could be taken into the hospital’s operation room, succumbed to his injury.
According to Kimberly Bradley, a cousin of Emerson Faber and a resident of the alley, she was inside her house when she heard about ten shots ring out.
Initial police investigation reveals that a group of men from the neighborhood were gambling in a backyard, when about three men surprised them. Two of the three men began shooting at them from behind a zinc fence that separates the two streets – West Canal and Plues Street.
The area where the men were gathered playing a para-pinto dice game, is dark. But they were aided by the light from a lamp post that is in the unnamed alleyway. In the immediate area behind where the men were gathered, a tall fig tree almost hides the structures in the area.
In the intensity of the dice game, the men were hovered over a drum that had a large piece of board covering it. The board served as a makeshift dice table.
All of a sudden, without any kind of warning, at least two nine millimeter pistols began spraying bullets in the direction of where the men were gathered. At least six men were involved in the dice game.
Josephine Faber, 24, the oldest of Emerson Faber’s children, was standing at the mouth of the alleyway when the shooting began. Josephine told Amandala that she knew that her father was behind there, but did not think that he was shot.
She realized that her father had been shot when he walked out of the alleyway toward a Chinese shop that is about 150 feet from where the men were gathered. On reaching in front of the Chinese shop, Emerson Faber collapsed on the ground. He was picked up and taken to the KHMH in a private vehicle. The ambulance, unfortunately, did not get to the crime scene in time to take the victims to the hospital.
At the KHMH, Faber, according to Josephine, was placed in a wheelchair. As he was moaning and groaning, one of the hospital staff told him, Mr. Faber, you cannot be acting like that. We are trying to help you. According to Josephine, they did not take her father immediately to the operating theatre, because the there was some other operation going on inside the theatre.
Emerson Faber died sometime shortly after 12:00 midnight, less than two hours after he was rushed to the hospital.
Amandala has learned that police have one suspect in custody, but the person, whom we understand is a minor, has not been charged.
Emerson Faber is survived by his six children, ages 24, 17, 15, 12, 8, and 7 years. He is also survived by his common-law wife, Nona Reynaud.
Emerson Faber was a stevedore by profession. In his prime, he was one of Belize’s greatest basketballers.