BELIZE CITY–Mervin Anthony Underwood, 32, a soil tester employed at the CISCO Construction Company, died after he was shot in the head near the Pound Yard Bridge by an unknown gunman as he was heading to work this morning.

A bus driver for CISCO Construction told Amandala that he was driving up Cemetery Road to Pound Yard to pick up Underwood to take him to work, when at about 100 yards from Pound Yard Bridge, he saw people running, and when he approached, he saw his friend and workmate sprawled on the ground. He had been shot.

The distraught driver said that Underwood, also known as “Bigga,” had not engaged in gang activity or violence. He was a diligent CISCO Construction employee, and it was his brother who had problems with the law, and not Bigga, he said. He categorized Underwood’s death as cruel and senseless.

Underwood is the third person to have been shot and killed since New Year’s Day, and a fourth person is in a critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, with a bullet lodged in his brain. He is on life support in the intensive care unit at the hospital.