Sydney Richards, Jr., aka “Snoopy”, 23, a resident of Queen Charlotte Street, was gunned down on the corner of Zeitown Street and East Collet Canal, sometime after 8 p.m. yesterday. He died at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
According to residents, Richards had just left his home at Queen Charlotte riding a bicycle. By the time he got to the corner of Zeitown Street and East Collet Canal, two men rode up behind him on bicycles.
One of the men pulled out a firearm and fired several shots. Two of them found their mark on Richards’ body: in the left side of his chest and under his left arm pit; the gunmen escaped leaving a dying Richards who had collapsed on the ground.
He was rushed to the KHMH, but while on the operating table, he expired. His family is now beside themselves with grief. They say that he didn’t deserve to die in the fashion he did because he was a hard-working individual.
His father, Steven Richards, Sr., told Amandala that his only son always kept busy. He was a stevedore by trade, but when he was not working at the Port of Belize, he had other jobs. He also was a bicycle mechanic. When he was not repairing bicycles, he would cut grass and did yard work, and he would also fish periodically.
His father told us that his son is not involved in gang violence, and has never been arrested. He said that he believes that his son was lured to his death, because he received a phone call to go back out on the streets after he had already reached home.
He explained that he had a few questions for his son recently. He said that he asked his son if he was having problems with anyone, and his son told him not to worry, because he had everything under control, and not to worry about “rumor.”
Apart from that, the family says they don’t know why anyone would want him dead. Police have not released any information about the motive or suspects in this latest murder.