A Double Murder on Kelly Street

Nelson Noralez & Byron Marshall

The senseless string of murders in the city, however, started early on Saturday morning in an area heavily-trafficked.  Just after two o’clock, an elderly resident accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old were murdered execution-style not far from Cinderalla Plaza and near the popular Chon Saan Palace restaurant. A single gunman is said to have carried out the double murder, believed to be a hit, for which no arrests have been made. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

The urban violence started as early as two-forty-five a.m. on Saturday, with yet another double murder; the second in three weeks in the Belize District. Fifty-nine-year-old Nelson Noralez and thirty-six-year-old Byron Marshall were walking on Kelly Street and as they neared its intersection with Matron Roberts Street, a gunman came up from behind and opened fire on the friends. Noralez, who carried a bicycle, was hit twice to the head while Marshall was also shot once to the head.

Dezerie Phillips

ACP Dezerie Phillips, Regional Commander, Eastern Division North

“Sometime around two-forty-five a.m., police were called out to the corner of Kelly Street and Matron Roberts Street where two male persons identified as Byron Marshall and Nelson Noralez were seen with gunshot wounds to the head. They were both transported to the K.H.M.H. and pronounced dead. From what we have been able to gather so far is that both persons—one was riding a bicycle, the other was walking alongside a bicycle—when a lone gunman came up from behind them and fired the fatal shots.”

News Five understands that police are in possession of surveillance footage from the area that capture the gunman, dressed in a white T-shirt and dark pants, alight a bicycle at the corner of Baymen Avenue and Kelly Street before making his way to the unsuspecting duo and executing them. Police arrived on the scene shortly after to discover their bodies on the pavement lying in a pool of their blood. Noralez’s nephew came out to the scene to identify his uncle and his friend in the back of the police pickup truck.

Chester Noralez

Chester Noralez, Nephew of Murder Victim

“When I walked into the crime scene, I see wah school bag but apparently the young man that was shot with him, the police picked up his school bag. And I said that was the young boy that was with my uncle. When I went to the back of the pickup now, I see mi uncle ina di back of the pickup with the young man weh I know too.”

Duane Moody

“So the two of them…”

Chester Noralez

“Two of them were murdered at the same spot at the same time.”

Tragically, Marshall, affectionately known as ‘Worm,’ lives in Pomona and would visit with friends here in the city every two to three months. He arrived in the Old Capital on Friday morning, and was killed within hours. Chester Noralez says that he last spoke to his uncle and Marshall hours before they were executed.

Chester Noralez

“He come way from Pomona to hang out with us. He was here. It was like forty-five minutes until he went—I told him that when he come in, he could stay with me for the weekend because he is from Pomona and ih say ih gwen till Monday. He say he gwen around the lane and that is the last time I see him.”

Nelson Noralez

Duane Moody

“That was Friday night?”

Chester Noralez

“That was early Saturday morning.”

Duane Moody

“So you saw your uncle and your friend? Around what time was this?”

Chester Noralez

“After eight before I left home to watch the basketball game. That’s the last time I saw both of them until they come hail me that my uncle get shot and I identify him and Byron dah di back of the police mobile.”

Byron Marshall

The men had just left from gambling at a friend’s house and were reportedly en route to another when they were murdered.

Chester Noralez

“He was coming from Freetown from a friend, he and young man, and was going to another friend at the time of the shooting.”

ACP Dezerie Phillips

“We have so far been able to establish that yes they were at a poker game indeed. But as to why they were targeted is still unknown to us.”

Reporter

“Were the two gentlemen, their belongings, anything taken?”

ACP Dezerie Phillips

“We don’t have anything to confirm that anything was taken from them.”

By all accounts Marshall and Noralez were law-abiding citizens. They were discovered with all their belongings intact so the motive of robbery has been ruled out. So why were they so callously targeted?

ACP Dezerie Phillips

“There are several theories we are following up on. But so far, we cannot concretely say; we have not been able to establish a motive, firstly. So having not been able to establish a motive, then we cannot say for sure what is the reason or why they were targeted.”

Duane Moody

“Why would anyone want to take your uncle’s life?”

Chester Noralez

“No, no, no. My uncle is an old man. He don’t have no beef or so forth with nobody. He just come and talk to yo, sit down. The only thing ih do dah just talk, maybe play wah lee card game with yo, drink and socialize and that’s it. No know why man wah just run behind the two of them and shoot them for no reason.”

Duane Moody for News Five.