Photo: Kaleem Chun, deceased

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Dec. 27, 2023

In the early hours of Christmas Day, Monday, December 25, 30-year-old Kaleem Chun was executed in Punta Gorda Town while walking alongside two of his colleagues, who are believed to have orchestrated his death, and have been officially charged by the Belize Police Department.

According to police reports, Chun, a Punta Gorda Town resident, had been walking on Main Street in the town around 3:00 a.m. along with two other men, 23-year-old Louis Barillas, a construction worker, and 20-year-old Lazaro Barrientos, a maintenance worker, both of Punta Gorda Town, when one of the men pulled out a firearm and fired a single shot from point-blank-range at Chun, killing him instantly.

During the weekly police press briefing, Assistant Commissioner of Police Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander for the Belize Police Department’s Eastern Division, told reporters that no motive has been established as yet for the killing of Chun.

Barillas and Barrientos have been jointly charged with murder.

In previous years, Chun had been charged for several offenses and was released from prison in September of this year.