Sometime before 8:00 p.m. this past Saturday, a social gathering which was taking place in a yard on Curl Thompson Street in the Port Loyola area of Belize City was rudely interrupted by a daring gunman who stormed onto the premises and fired into the crowd.

According to police, Carlton Augustine, 23, who works as a soldier in the Belize Defence Force (BDF), was socializing with four other men when another man, dressed in a grey T-shirt, ran into the yard and fired several shots in his direction.

Augustine was shot in the right side of the chest and left upper arm before the gunman ran out of the yard and made good his escape.

In speaking about the incident with the media today, Sergeant Ismael Westby, NCO of the Crimes Investigation Branch at Belize City Police’s Precinct 2, said that, based on their initial investigations, police believe that Augustine was the intended target, although a motive is yet to be determined.

Westby said that police are seriously looking into the matter.

Augustine, who is presently in a stable condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, reportedly told police that he does not know why anyone would want to kill him.

Police retrieved seven GFL 9 millimeter expended shells from the scene of the crime.