He was lured out of his house by a phone call
Amidst an apparent resurgence of gun violence across Belize City, another young man met his untimely death after he was ruthlessly gunned down as he stood inside a yard on Curl Thompson Street in the Port Loyola area last night at around 11:00.
Amandala understands that Kevin Rodriguez, 19, was already inside the house of his mother’s church sister where he was staying, in the aforementioned yard, but stepped out after receiving a phone call; however, instead of meeting the person who called him, Rodriguez was met with gunfire and died within minutes after being shot three times by a gunman.
Police reported that they visited Curl Thompson Street in the Jane Usher Boulevard area on Sunday, April 13, at approximately 11:00 p.m. and saw the motionless body of Kevin Rodriguez, with apparent multiple gunshot wounds to the upper and lower part of the body.
Their investigations later revealed that around 10:40 that night, Rodriguez walked outside of the said house where he was staying for about 5 minutes and shortly after, the sounds of several gunshots were heard after which Rodriguez was later seen lying in the yard.
Police said that they found three slugs and three expended 9mm shells at the scene, and their investigations into the homicide continue.
Corporal Jorge Lemus, Administration Officer at Precinct 2, told the media today that Rodriguez was detained on April 5 and questioned with regards to a Taurus 9mm pistol that was stolen from Precinct 2 some weeks ago and was later found in an abandoned lot located beside Kevin Rodriguez’s home on Jane Usher Boulevard. The Taurus 9mm gun was allegedly used in the commission of another murder about two weeks ago.
Lemus said, “At this time we have nothing to indicate why he was murdered.”
Lemus also confirmed that Rodriguez had received a phone call prior to his shooting death and indicated that they are following all leads as part of the investigations.
Today his mother, Sylvia Rodriguez, told Amandala that she believes that her son may have been lured to his death based on that call that he received just a few minutes before he was shot.
She said, “He was staying at my church sister’s house. Sometimes he sleeps at my house but on Tuesday, I sent him to village and he came down back Saturday morning and he got shot last night.”
Rodriguez’s mother strongly suspects that the phone call had something to do with his murder.
“I picked up his phone [at the scene] and it showed that he received a call at 10:46 p.m., I don’t know from who”, said Ms. Rodriguez, adding that she later received a call at 10:54 p.m. informing her that Kevin had been shot.
Ms. Rodriguez explained that although her son had gotten himself into trouble in the past, he was no criminal or gang member.
She did tell us that Kevin got stabbed in his head about a month ago while standing on Jane Usher Boulevard, but was uncertain as to the reason for his subsequent assassination last night.
“He trusted all his friends and trusts everybody. I told him to get out of the city because it is too dangerous but he told me that he did not have any reason to move out because he did not do anything to anyone”, she mentioned.
According to police, one person is detained and is currently being questioned in connection with Rodriguez’s murder.