Police Address What Happened to Latest Shooting Victim
As we said, on Monday night, twenty-one-year-old Jaheel Goodger was shot during a brazen attempt on his life as he rode through Conch Shell Bay. His assailant has since been identified as a sixteen-year-old minor and has been charged in connection with the incident. But what was Goodger, a resident of Slaughterhouse Road, across town, doing in that neighborhood at the time his life came under threat? It is the belief of Belize City police that affiliates of the warring factions are being brought into the area and as such they too have become embroiled in the bitter rivalry. According to Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, those individuals will be kept out of the neighborhood. Already that decision is being called to question since a purported resident of Conch Shell Bay is alleging that he is being kept away from the area where he resides and earns his living.
ACP Chester Williams, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South
“The community is one community but one of the things that we have found out is that the young men within these communities are bringing in others from other communities within the area and when they do that it creates problems because there is tension sometimes between those persons from the other communities and that community. So when the two group of people end up in the same community where they have rivalries then it is a problem. So what we have done as well, particularly where the Conch Shell Bay area is concerned, I have given instructions to my officers to ensure that those persons who we know have rivalries with people in the Conch Shell Bay area not to allow them within that area until the situation in the area has become more calm. Because if they go in at this time, seeing that the situation is still volatile it might cause problem to escalate again and we do not want that. So we are doing different things like keeping some people out who we believe have rivalries with persons who live in those communities.”
The neighborhood watch group is the initiative of residents of Conch Shell Bay.