BELIZE CITY, Fri. Mar. 6, 2020– Two men were shot while standing in front of Tammy’s Shop on Central American Boulevard at about 8:00 tonight.
Devon Arnold, 24, a laborer of Arlington Drive, was shot in the head and died shortly after his arrival at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, while his friend, Wayne Pratt, was shot in the shoulder. He was admitted in a serious condition.
Reliable information is that while the two men were standing in front of Tammy’s Shop, two armed men came from Matura Street, a nearby side street. They went up to Arnold and Pratt and opened fire. The two gunmen then ran back into Matura Street.
Video footage recorded by cameras mounted in the area are being viewed for possible identification of the two killers, and witnesses of the incident are being interviewed, said police. So far, the motive for the brazen shooting is not known.
There is no indication yet whether the shooting of these two men is in any way related to the shooting of three men on Tuesday afternoon. Two of those three men were fatally wounded. They are Keith Courtenay, 46, an employee of the Belize City Council who was a father of 6 children and the grandfather of 4. He was shot eight times in the back in the Ebony Street Long Barracks compound for reasons yet unknown. He was not known to be associated with any gang, but was a family man and a church member.
The other man killed on Tuesday evening was Michael Barrera, 52, a former counselor and youth activist at CYDP, who was a father of 7 and grandfather of 4. On Tuesday evening, Barrera was buying food at a Chinese restaurant at the corner of Central American Boulevard and Iguana Street and was talking to a man who was also buying food. The man with whom Barrera had been conversing ran when he saw an armed man coming towards him.
Because his target had escaped, the frustrated gunman shot Barrera in his head at close range. Barrera died almost immediately. An investigation into the murder led police to Alden Lara, 20, of Antelope Street Extension. Lara has since been remanded until June 6. Police confirmed that Barrera was not the target; rather, the gunman’s target was the man with whom Barrera had been conversing, who police say is a member of a rival gang.
That same Tuesday evening, a barber on Zericote Street escaped death after being shot through the cheek. The barber was trimming the hair of a customer when a gunman came to the door and fired at him. The gunman tried to fire again, but the gun jammed.
Police said that the shootings which took place on Tuesday are related and are the result of ongoing gang rivalries. They have stepped up patrols in hot spot areas to try to deal with the expected retaliations.
Feature photo: (l-r) Devon Arnold and Wayne Pratt