_{Photo: King-Shakel Wade, deceased}

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Oct. 16, 2024

A six-year-old boy who fell into a canal at the corner of Fairweather Street and South Creek in Belize City on Tuesday, October 15, apparently drowned, and his body was recovered a couple hours later from the water.

Reports are indicating that around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the boy, King-Shakel Wade, arrived at the South Creek residence of 56-year-old Jennifer Fitzgibbon, who was responsible for King’s care. Fitzgibbon had been babysitting the now deceased child since he was three-months old.

While at Fitzgibbon’s residence, King was playing with his sibling and reportedly was seated on an old refrigerator while Fitzgibbon attended to other children, and during that period the child apparently fell into the canal.

When King’s sibling informed the other children in the area what had just happened, they reportedly thought it was a joke. When King’s 12-year-old sister, Azra Wade, arrived and began asking for him, she was informed that he had fallen into the water.

A desperate Fitzgibbon and Azra then searched the area but couldn’t find King, and it wasn’t until an hour later that they discovered his slippers floating in the canal. Fitzgibbon then called the police for assistance, and the Belize Coast Guard was contacted.

“Everything happened so fast, da like nobody neva expect it fu happen. Nobody neva visualize paat ih drop. Oda people mi deh round, but ih happen so fast, cah he just mi deh eena di yaad, and everybody mi di do dey own ting,” said Jaheim Lawrence, one of the young men who dived in the canal to search for Wade’s body. “ih mi gone da shop before, and, ih mi di watch di haaas dehn; but time we look and all we cuda do da react,” he added.

Lawrence mentioned that by the time news spread of baby King being inside the water a crowd of spectators had arrived, but none were brave enough to dive into the murky water, as there have been rumors that crocodiles live in the canal.

“I had to rescue di youth, because ih holla at me and do lee favas fu me and what’s not. He da wa nice kid, and mi di grow up fu be a good civilian,” Lawrence said.

“Everybody mi wait pahn Coast Guard, and like barely anybody waahn assist, so I just jump een, and I see some oda young man eena di neighborhood jump in too; bout three or four, and di search party stumble pan di body,” Lawrence said.

Baby King-Shakel Wade’s motionless body was recovered from the canal around 6:15 p.m. and was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.