Information is sketchy, but at press time tonight, it is plain that the city’s blood bath has continued, with two more shootings, which have produced a death and a situation where the other victim is not expected to survive.
Tonight, around 6:35, a volley of shots rang out along Central American Boulevard. By the time the police arrived, two of the victims were already transported to the hospital, a grandfather and his young granddaughter. The baby, condition unknown at this time, was later taken to the Belize Healthcare Partners.
The grandfather, name unknown at this time, was treated and released from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) earlier tonight.
Darrell Charles Williams, 19, had just asked his grandmother how her day was, and walked out of his yard, when gunshots were heard—as much as ten shots were fired in Williams’ direction.
Several of the bullets found their mark, and tonight, as we go to press, Williams lies in a critical condition on life support at the KHMH. His relatives say he is not expected to survive.
About three and a half hours later, shortly after 10:00 p.m., more gunshots echoed along Central American Boulevard and another man fell.
The victim, identified as Ralton “Shabba” Usher, succumbed to his injuries shortly after he was taken to the KHMH.
The two shootings brought to seven the number of times gunfire erupted in the old capitol in five days, and upped the death count to two, with another not expected to survive.
Beginning last Thursday night and continuing up to tonight, Monday, gunfire has rocked the city.
According to police, last Thursday night, Mark Lopez, 44, was at a restaurant on Orange Street around 10:00 when he was hit in the left lower back by one of several gunshots heard in the area. He was taken to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
On Friday night around 7:30, Neville Thomas, Jr., 53, also became a shooting victim. He was shot three times and died in his apartment on the third floor of a building at the corner of West and Orange Streets. (That story is chronicled separately elsewhere in this issue.)
After a break on Saturday, the sound of gunfire returned to the area on Sunday morning, around 7:30. On Euphrates Avenue, Bernard Felix, 24, and Gavin Zuniga, 27, were recreating on the basketball court when someone fired from the direction of Cairo Street.
Felix, shot in the right upper arm, and Zuniga, hit in his right upper back, were taken to the KHMH, where they remain in stable condition. Two minors have been detained in this incident.
Later on Sunday morning, gunmen fired on the Salvation Army compound on Orange Street around 10:00 , as a church service was scheduled to begin. Miraculously, no one was injured in this incident, even though many children and adults were in the area at the time.
And then, a teenager Isaiah Middleton, 14, of Glynn Street, was shot this morning around 5:15 at his two-storey wooden home, where he was sleeping along with his younger brothers. Amandala understands that the culprits, identified as dark-skinned men (one wearing his hair in dreadlocks), visited the area and called for the standard-six student of Salvation Army Primary School, and then stomped open the door.
Both fired over 10 shots at random into the room. Isaiah was hit in both feet and taken to the KHMH, where he remains; one of his younger brothers was grazed in the incident.
And now tonight, with the latest round of shootings, Darrell Charles Williams lies fighting for his life in a hospital, while the family of Ralton “Shabba” Usher prepares to bury him.