The mother of yet another Belize City youth is mourning the death of her only son and making arrangements to bury him. Orlando “Bam” Reyes, 19, of Tigris Street, was shot and killed on Friday April 20. He is now in the Karl Heusner Morgue awaiting an autopsy. He was killed around 3:00 p.m. — shot in his chest, abdomen and hand.
A witness who was along with Reyes told Amandala that around 3:00 p.m. Friday April, 20, they were riding against traffic on Cemetery Road towards Salvation Army from Orange Street, to buy a T-shirt for Bam, but when they became abreast with Dominoes Store, a man who was riding a bicycle up Cemetery Road towards them opened fire down Cemetery Road towards Salvation Army School, in the direction of two men who were standing at the corner of West Street and Cemetery Road, hitting them, and the men went down.
The gunman then turned the gun on them, and without provocation, opened fire on them. The witness said that the shooter fired around six shots at them. He (the witness) ran into a store to take cover, while his friend, Bam, ran away, and the gunman rode away and disappeared into the surrounding area.
The witness said that afterwards, he retrieved the two bikes they were riding and began to ride around to find his friend. He was later told that Bam had run to Mike’s Club, where he had collapsed, dead.
The witness immediately went to Mike’s and saw his friend dead on the floor in the doorway.
He said that the gunman had fired around 12 shots in total. He did not know the man and has no clue why the man had fired at them.
Maude Gordon, Reyes’ mother, told Amandala that she was at home when she heard about the shooting. She immediately called her son’s phone, but got no response. She again called shortly after and the police answered her son’s phone, but hung up.
Immediately after, she got a call that her son was dead at Mike’s. She immediately caught a taxi and went to the area, and saw her son on the floor in the doorway. She held him in her arms and told him she loved him.
Police asked her to identify him, which she did, and they then put him into the back of a mobile unit on a stretcher, and took him to the morgue at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Gordon said that Reyes had just gotten a hat, and he was going to buy a shirt to match the hat, because he was a good dresser, and liked to coordinate the items of clothing he wore.
She was adamant that he was not in a gang, and that he was not affiliated with any gang. He did not mingle with people and avoided crowds, she said.
She said that he spent his early years in the United States, and after he returned in November last year, he made some trips to the U.S.
She saw him on Thursday, April 19, and he was clean, well dressed and handsome, she said. He was not nervous, nor showed any sign that his life was in danger. She said that when she saw her son dead, her heart was shattered, and since then, she cannot eat or sleep. She takes sleeping pills to get a little rest.
She loved him very much; he was her only son, she said.
Reyes’ girlfriend said that they had been in a relationship for a long time. He had gone to the United States, and when he returned, they had rekindled their relationship, and he had been “good to her”. She said that she loved him and would miss him very much.
Gordon said that she does not believe that she will get justice for her son’s death, but she will not seek revenge and will leave it to God.
Orlando Ernesto Reyes, 19, is survived by his mother, Maude Gordon, his sister, his stepfather, grandmother, and many other relatives and friends.
Sonia Flowers raised Reyes, and she will come from the US for his funeral.