Zelaya was shot three times while he was walking on Complex Avenue
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Jan. 28, 2019– Around 10:00 o’clock on Saturday morning, Marcos Antonio Zelaya, 21, was walking on Complex Avenue, in the Lake Independence area of Belize City, when someone from inside a burgundy vehicle opened fire on him, hitting him in the back of the head, right upper shoulder and upper back.
Zelaya was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted in a critical but stable condition.
The shooting is said to have been gang-related. Eight months ago, one of Zelaya’s brothers, Jose Zelaya, Jr., 22, was found dead in a cane field in Calcutta Village, Corozal District. The Belize City gang affiliate had been murdered.
Police have so far made no arrest for Saturday morning’s shooting.
Today, we spoke to Zelaya’s father, Jose Antonio Zelaya, Sr., 42.
Zelaya told us, “My son’s shooting was a planned hit by the BLC [acronym for Back-a-Land Crip].”
“My son shooting has to do with the murder of Joseph Babb. Eight months ago I lost a son, but this incident had nothing to do with my other son. But it’s time to make somebody address the problem, because we have a serious problem in Belize City,” Zelaya said.
Zelaya said, “He was walking along with my two nephews and my niece from my mother’s house. My son stopped to talk to me briefly.”
Zelaya explained that he saw a vehicle and the vehicle cut him off and he then saw a man thrust his head out of the vehicle and shoot his son three times.
“Í ran behind the vehicle. The vehicle took off, but God is a wonderful man, I saw the shooter”, he said.
Zelaya explained that the shooter had a hat over his face, but the hat fell off and he was eye-to-eye with the shooter.
Zelaya said that he will not seek any revenge.
It was suggested to Zelaya that he take some kind of responsibility for what happened to his son.
Zelaya, however, explained that he would not make a report to the police, because the police, he said, are making “too many deals with the criminals”.
“How I never lucky to find gun and ammunition on an open lot,” Zelaya said.
Zelaya added, “If I find a gun, it’s my luck. I would a mi tek dat and sell dat.”
Zelaya, who earlier had described himself as a street general, was asked if he had any regrets for the life that he had lived.
Zelaya replied that he has no regrets for the life that he has lived.