The peace of a holiday morning was shattered on Monday around 8:30 a.m. when gun violence claimed the life of an 11-year-old boy.

The family of Kaylon Matura, 28, who was killed last Wednesday right outside his home on Central American Boulevard, were making final preparations to lay him to rest later that day. His young cousin, Daniel, 11, had just seen the body lying in state and was on his way to do an errand.

Suddenly, two well-known personalities, one accused by the family of committing Kaylon’s murder, rode through the area on bicycle, and one of them reportedly shouted at the home, “I wah kill all a unu,” according to eyewitnesses and relatives of the family who were in the area, who spoke with Amandala.

Gunshots soon rang out, as they often do in this battle zone.

But while these personalities escaped unhurt, young Daniel, who was returning from the store, took the bullets reportedly intended for them. According to police, he was shot in the left side of the chest, the right side of the back, and on the left ring finger, and he collapsed near the corner of the Boulevard and Boots Crescent. He would be pronounced dead on arrival at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH).

At a press conference held on Tuesday morning, officer commanding Eastern Division of the Belize Police Department, Assistant Commissioner Elodio Aragon, Jr., told the press that Brandon Taylor, 26, and Roy Bennett, 27, were riding from the direction of Fabers Road toward Neal Pen Road, and on their passing the Matura residence, the alleged confrontation took place.

Police identified the shooter as Andrew Willoughby, 31, who has given police a caution statement after being detained. A total of 11 shells were recovered from the scene.

Superintendent Alden Dawson, the officer commanding Criminal Investigation Branch at Eastern Division, explained during the press conference that Willoughby’s common-law wife is Kaylon Matura’s sister, and since his brother-in-law, Kaylon Matura, was killed last week, Willoughby has believed that Taylor was responsible for that murder.

Apparently, said Superintendent Dawson, “Brandon Taylor passed the yard of Kaylon Matura yesterday [Monday] and made some capers, and Andrew Willoughby decided that he would fire at him. He fired several shots; none caught Brandon Taylor, but instead the shots caught the young Daniel, Daniel Matura, who is the cousin-in-law of Andrew Willoughby, causing the fatal injuries, so it’s a case of in-laws shooting in-laws by accident, we believe.”

According to ACP Aragon, “It is clear why Andrew Willoughby committed this shooting incident, did this shooting against Brandon Taylor… the relationship here lies with Andrew Willoughby, Kaylon Matura, Daniel Matura, and Brandon Taylor… this tragic incident with the child, Daniel Matura, was a result of Andrew Willoughby shooting at Brandon Taylor, missing them [Taylor and Roy Bennett] and catching his own, a relative of his.”

ACP Aragon said that the Department “strongly believes” that the incident is gang-related and was retaliation specifically linked to Kaylon Matura’s murder on May 16.

The Department on Tuesday named Taylor the prime suspect in the Kaylon Matura murder; he has since turned himself in and has now been formally charged with murder, appearing on Wednesday in court.

Willoughby, also, has now been charged with the murder of Daniel Matura and attempted murder of Brandon Taylor and Roy Bennett.

Details of both arraignments are provided elsewhere in this issue.

The gang rivalry that caused his death aside, those who knew young Daniel Matura remember him as loving life and all those around him. He had ambitions of being a soldier in the Belize Defence Force (BDF) when he grew up, but also nursed a love for animals, taking care of puppies at his Arlington Drive home.

Principal Sister Lana Ahmad of the Sister Clara Muhammad-Muslim Community Primary School (MCPS), which Daniel attended, told us that what the Standard Three student lacked in academic gifts, he made up for in his artistic and creative nature.

“Daniel was full of life; he was filled with life. Daniel was the kind of child that, whatever function you could expect him to be there….any activity that we had over at the Community Masjid, Daniel was there, like he was a part of our community. So we consider him a Muslim child.”

Sister Ahmad noted that even those children who attend her school and are raised in Christian homes are regarded as being in “natural submission” to God and therefore Muslims until they reach puberty, when they can choose for themselves.

Had he been a part of Wednesday’s protest march organized by the school in his memory, Sister Ahmad noted, he “would have been one of those tumblers; that was his group…he would have been right at the forefront; that’s Daniel. He was a vibrant child in our school; he had so many friends at this school. So the children miss him; we will all miss him, but Daniel is in a better place than we are. He is safe where he is.” (The march is detailed elsewhere in this issue.)

Family members we spoke with on Wednesday likewise remember young Daniel as energetic, spirited and full of ambition to take care of his mother and family. The family has accepted that Willoughby did not mean to hurt Daniel, but question whether something more happened. They also told Amandala that to prevent further violence in the area, they would like to see a substation or police booth built on Central American Boulevard, as there were other children present and the area is heavily trafficked by school children, leaving them vulnerable to possible violence at any time.

Daniel Matura, Jr., is the sixth child to die on Belize City’s Southside in twenty months, four of them on or during public and bank holidays and holiday weekends. In July of 2010, 8-year-old Marquis Mahler was killed in a double shooting murder on Fabers Road, and a few weeks later, during a robbery, 14-year-old Helen Yu was fatally shot, prompting a massive funeral procession by the Chinese community.

Mere weeks after that, 8-year-old Eyannie Nunez was fatally wounded by scattered gunfire at her home on Zericote Street. Her funeral was accompanied by as many as 4,000 observers.

In 2011, on Independence Day, 9-year-old Joshua Abraham was shot and killed while returning from the parade in Belize City; and on New Years’ Eve, Aaron Myvett Pope, also 9, was killed when his George Street home was ruthlessly invaded.