BELIZE CITY, Tues. Dec. 28, 2021– Last night, as the Christmas weekend came to a close, a young man was brazenly shot and killed at his home on Raccoon Street. Derron Hernandez, 23, was reportedly shot shortly after he arrived home on Monday evening after having done a double shift at the call center at which he worked.

Reports from the police are that a lone gunman went into the yard in which Hernandez’s home is located and shouted Hernandez’s name. After Hernandez briefly exited his home to see who was at the gate and turned around to re-enter his house, the visitor fired a single gunshot which made its mark and proved fatal. Shortly after, police went to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) and saw Hernandez’s lifeless body.

His aunt, Audrey Dawson, told local reporters, “Well, I know that my nephew had just come from work because he’s very, he’s always working. He no heng, you know, and he went home and they heard the gate, my next, his next brother, he said ‘check who’s at the gate,’ and then when he went to the gate, that’s when he was like, he turned around. ‘I don’t know who’, you know, that’s what he was telling his brother, but by the time he turned back around, the person had already fired the shot at him. Through the door and it was right through the screen door that they fired the shot.”

Police canvassed the area after the shooting, and according to the Police Department, they have detained several persons who they believe could shed some light on what led to the murder of Hernandez. While the information they have gathered so far is limited, police have learned that the victim and his alleged killer had an altercation at least one day prior to the shooting.

No definite motive has yet been established, but police continue their investigation and are following up on other leads.

Derron Hernandez was known to be a humble, easygoing young man and had just moved into the neighborhood in Raccoon Street Extension but lived in the general area for a long time.