BELIZE CITY, Wed. Nov. 24, 2021 — On Monday, a 26-year-old man identified as Shaquille Perrera was arrested and charged for the murder of Camron Hernandez, 16, who was gunned down in Mahogany Heights last Thursday and passed away while undergoing treatment at the Western Regional Hospital. Perrera has been remanded to the Belize Central Prison until January 24, 2021, for the indictable offense. No plea was taken from him in court.

This week, the guardian of young Hernandez told AMANDALA that he had been a student of the ITVET, and had been acquiring skills in air condition installation/repair and electrical technology with the hopes of one day becoming an entrepreneur. Those dreams were cut short senselessly by a man almost 10 years his senior.

Hernandez’s family says that he was a neighbor and close friend of another teenager who was also killed in Mahogany Heights a few weeks ago: Eaton Thompson, a fourth-form student of Maud Williams High School. It must be noted that both young men were reportedly not directly involved in a feud that is reportedly ongoing within Mahogany Heights, but both became innocent victims of the gun violence in that village.

Hernandez’s teachers and classmates, much like his family, are still shocked and in disbelief about his sudden and violent death, his guardian told us. They, like countless Belizean families, are now seeking justice for their loved ones and say that Camron revealed the identity of his killer to the police before he died.

That ultimately led to Perrera’s arrest and detention.

Hernandez’s family wish to emphasize that the young man was no part of the ongoing gang rivalry in the village and that he, like Eaton Thompson, was a law-abiding teenager with a promising future whose life was lost due to a war taking place among grown men in the village.

At this time, at least 11 police officers are deployed to the village, a once peaceful retirement community that has, by all indications, become a war zone.