Call of Duty Video Game Ends With Real-Life Execution
Emerson Talbert
A Belize City man from Racecourse Street, who was shot just after midnight on Sunday, died hours later at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Twenty-two-year-old Emerson Talbert and two other persons were playing video games, a favourite pastime, when he was executed. The group was at a house on Cemetery Lane when Talbert was ambushed by a gunman who shot him from behind. One bullet hit him on the face exiting his neck and ten hours after the shooting he succumbed. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Ambushed in real life while playing Call of Duty; sadly, that’s how it ended for twenty-two-year-old Emerson Talbert who was shot in the face sometime after midnight. Along with several others, Paisa, as he was known in the neighborhood, was seated inside the living room of this home on Cemetery Lane, engrossed in the video game, when a lone gunman appeared at the door.
Voice of: Cemetery Lane Resident
“This morning, I was basically awoken to a loud bang. Normally, as anybody would be, I was very frightened so I just sat up in my bed a little while trying to figure out what happened. I thought it may be something innocent. I heard my brother screaming so I came outside and I saw the young man laying on the floor.”
A regular guest and friend of the family, Talbert was always over at the residence, either playing video games or making use of the free internet access. What happened overnight took them all by surprise since the home is considered a safe haven. Police shared with us what they’ve found in their investigation thus far.
Alejandro Cowo
ASP Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Belize City
“The latest homicide, we had it last night. Sometime just after midnight, Mr. Emerson Talbert, a twenty-five-year-old Belizean of 67 Racecourse Street was at a friend’s house located at 33 Cemetery Lane, while he was playing a video game along with other friends, a male person entered the front door and fired a single shot in his direction. He was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where he was admitted in a critical condition. Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries this morning, sometime after ten in the morning.”
According to a distant relative who chose to remain unnamed, Talbert’s attacker approached the front porch, walked up to the open door and took aim with a firearm.
Voice of: Cemetery Lane Resident
“Pais, as we call him, he was basically at the door with his back turned towards the door and then another dude was in the chair beside him and then my brother was in the other chair beside the second person. A young man came on the veranda and pointed a gun at Pais. Keep in mind that he wasn’t looking because he had his back turned and the guy that was in the chair beside him, told him something and he lifted his face up and that was when the person fired the gun off, hitting him through his nose. The bullet came out through the side of his neck and then it hit the door.”
Isani Cayetano
“At the point where this incident happened, what was the immediate reaction of those inside the house who saw what took place and attempted to help Mr. Talbert?”
Voice of: Cemetery Lane Resident
“Well, my brother who is basically a very good… Well we are actually cousins, we’re far cousins but we’re still cousins, he ran and he tried to hold him up because then he had the blood coming through his nose and through his mouth. So he was trying to hold him up so that he did not choke on his own blood.”
While police chose not to divulge details of a working theory behind Talbert’s murder, relatives maintain that he had no issues with persons in the immediate neighborhood.
ASP Alejandro Cowo
“There is a possibility of a theory that we are looking at this moment but it is [at a] very young and I cannot give you the exact information because it might cause another investigation that we are dealing with, you know.”
Isani Cayetano
“He’s not someone, as far as you know, who may have had an issue with anybody else in the neighborhood or from any other parts of the city as to why something like this would happen.”
Voice of: Cemetery Lane Resident
“That’s correct. Mr. Talbert, actually he doesn’t have problems with anybody that I know about. From the neighborhood, he doesn’t give any trouble. I’m not sure about any other neighborhoods, but I could speak for this one and this is where he had been living ever since we came around here. I’ve never heard [about] him giving trouble anywhere else, so for this to happen to him it’s so very sad.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
