BELIZE CITY, Thurs. June 23, 2022
An eerie, emerging pattern has been seen in the most recent shooting incidents in Belize City. What Belizeans have observed in recent weeks is an increased willingness of gunmen to attempt executions in areas not known to be gang zones, as well as an alarming lack of concern about the innocence of the victims of their attacks. Examples of this include the fatal shooting of a security guard on Dolphin Drive in Buttonwood Bay last Thursday, the reported attempt by a gunman this week to shoot at a target near the YWCA on St. Thomas Street, where pre-schoolers could have been injured, and the execution of the innocent father of a reputed gang leader on King Street on Father’s Day (Sunday). The slaying yesterday evening in Kings Park of 25-year-old Jordan Bradley, who almost all recent posts on social media indicate was a humble, hardworking young man, appears to be another recent incident of this sort.
It has been reported that, while Bradley was with a group of men socializing in a yard on 11th Street in Kings Park in Belize City, two men exited a white Dodge Caravan that stopped in front of the yard and indiscriminately fired a number of shots at the men which, reports say, wounded Bradley in the leg and face.
Bradley, a resident of 4th Street, also in the Kings Park area, passed away last night sometime after 6:00 p.m.
This is the second incident over the past week and a half of gunmen firing into groups in a yard and killing an innocent person—the first of which was the fatal shooting of Brodies Supermarket security guard, Glenn Vernon, who was socializing in a yard with a group of men in Buttonwood Bay when he was killed.
A flood of posts on social media indicate that Bradley was an innocent victim of the ongoing gun violence in Belize City’s streets.
“Damn bro. Been my primary school buddy, we pretty much grew up together. A stone’s throw away from each other. We didn’t hang out as often because life took us down our own path but I never would’ve thought that you would die this way. An innocent soul lost to senseless gun violence,” Tevonne Phillips, a friend of Bradley, posted on Facebook following the news of his death.
Bradley is being remembered as a humble, mature and hardworking young man, who was not involved in any criminal activity or had any run-ins with the law, by all indications.
Belizean poet and artist, Erwin X, in a post on Facebook said, “I WANT TO BEAR WITNESS TO HIS DEMEANOR AS A VERY HUMBLE, RESPECTABLE AND COOL PERSON. I NEVER SAW HIM AS A THREAT TO ANYONE! I CAN NOT SEE AND UNDERSTAND WHY HE WAS KILLED IN THE FOOLISH WAR IN THE STREETS. MAY ALLAH GRANT HIM AND HIS FAMILY SWIFT JUSTICE.”
There is no indication of what issue, whether gang-related or personal, led to his death. Police have not released an official report on the incident, and it is not yet known whether any persons have been arrested in connection with this recent city murder.