Family Describes Shock of Grandmother’s Shooting Injury; Child Still Hospitalized
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seven-year-old Saint Joseph Primary School student is tonight recovering back at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital from a gunshot wound to the back which exited her abdomen. Malli Herrera was injured along with her grandmother just before news time on Tuesday night as they sat inside their home on New Road, in Belize City. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Seven-year-old Malli Herrera remains in a critical but stable condition at the Intensive Care Unit of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after she was shot in the lower back on Tuesday night. Herrera was inside her house along with her sister and cousin, ages six and four, respectively, and at least five adults, when a gunman stood in an alley and opened fire. Several bullets penetrated the walls of the wooden house on New Road and caught Herrera’s sixty-year-old grandmother Judith Rocke in the arm.
Voice of: Judith Rocke, Shooting Victim [File: October 25th, 2017]
“I was sitting in my chair waiting for the seven o’clock news when I hear gunshots fired; about four [shots]. After that, I realized that I was hit in the right arm and my granddaughter was hit in the buttock’s area; that’s all I can say.”
Voice of: Rashawn Rocke, Aunt of Malli Herrera
“I mi di make spaghetti fi them and thing so I gone ina di kitchen and when I gone ina the kitchen, I just hear pow. Well we know that usually across the gas station when yo go pump yo bike, the tire dehn like buss, so we mi feel like dah that. Right after that I hear pow, pow, pow. And to me dah mi like wah movie because dah like I stand up there ina the kitchen and I just watch everybody deh pan di ground and I hear one of my bredda halla unu stay pan di ground.”
Assuming that the gunman would have made his way into the house, Rashawn Rocke hastened to lock the backdoor. What she didn’t realize was that her niece had been shot. She recounts going to Malli’s aid before rushing her to the K.H.M.H.; the bullet entered her back and exited her abdomen.
Voice of: Rashawn Rocke
“I notice my lee niece deh down pan di ground pan her two knees and I notice that she noh di move; that she just stay there but like ih di tremble. So I say mama weh happen. And then after that ih noh di talk; ih just di watch me, but ih stay pan ih two knees. And when I look I see blood dah ih back. But I mi say due to the fact that blood mi di spray from my ma hand, I mi say maybe she get touch with the blood. I halla fi my older bredda, weh dah her dad, and I tell ahn come dah Malli; ih mussi get shot, please come ker ahn. And he grab ahn and put ahn into the vehicle. We mi di halla fi my ma fi ker she too, but due to the fact that she knows the procedures, she deh kinda shock too and say just hurry ker the baby. So I deh dah back seat and my bredda di drive and I just see my lee niece di go.”
It is a frightening experience for the family, but even more so for the Saint Joseph Primary School students who have been left traumatized by the incident.
Voice of: Rashawn Rocke
“When you got kids involved like them, wah four-year-old, wah six-year-old and wah seven-year-old weh honestly noh know what to do ina di first place when they hear gunshot. Because I mean fi say, when we feel like dah tire di buss…even when that happens, my niece dehn run and say “Auntie, auntie…gunshot.” So for something like this to really happen. Fi we it more shocking and hurtful when it comes to the kids because when I di watch fi dehn face, my daughter she come to me after the gunshots and she noh di tell me nothing; she just di watch me ina my face. And like I say we never know my niece get shot because ih noh di say nothing, ih noh di cry, ih noh di bawl out; ih noh di do nothing.”
According to Rashawn, while it is believed that one of her brothers may have been the target, it is not known what triggered the shooting.
Voice of: Rashawn Rocke
“Everybody know we and due to the fact of the lifestyle that my bredda dehn live, everybody wah got their own thing fi say and say “Oh, dah because of the nurse son dehn.” At the end of the day, I noh deh round to say I know my bredda dehn noh do this. And I woulda never get and say dehn noh do nothing. Whatever they do out in the streets, if they are doing anything, I cannot say because I noh go with dehn. At the end of the day, anything coulda mi happen to trigger anybody—it could be something old, it could be something new. And noh because yo di hold it down, that means yo past noh wah come back come ketch yo.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
