3 dead in weekend shootings

In sheer numbers, the death toll does not begin to approach the level of bloodshed now taking place in the so-called Holy Land. But while Israelis and Palestinians can at least say they are killing and dying for a cause, the young men of Belize City can make no such claim. Over the weekend, three more bodies made their way to the morgue, while those responsible for the deaths roam free. Ann-Marie has the details.

Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting

“Reports are that three young men drove up in a vehicle, parked it near the load of sand, ran up this alley and opened fire behind that van, hitting three innocent passers-by, one of whom was fatally shot.”

The victim is nineteen-year-old Alvaro Peter Zelaya of Mahogany Street Extension in Belize City. Javier Saragoza, who was sitting on the other side of the street, witnessed the gruesome killing around 9:30 Sunday night.

Javier Saragoza, Eyewitness

“I mi deh right pan the street side when the car haul up through the lane and three ah di boys run out with big gun and just start shoot at we. Three innocent young boys mi di walk pass in red, three ah deh innocent the walk pass and the man deh just start…they had three big guns, M-16 pump and nine and just (makes guns noises) like twenty odd shots.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“So are you saying that he was shot innocently?”

Javier Saragoza

“Innocently ih dead, because he just enna red. Right now man di dead and man di dead and deh young boy just want revenge and just kill anybody.”

The two other young men, who were walking with Zelaya at the time were also shot. Dwight Moody, seventeen, took several bullets in his feet and was disabled. Twenty-year-old Saul Cardona was somewhat luckier in that after being shot in the butt, he could still run. Although bleeding profusely, he reached cover on the veranda of this house across the street.

Saragoza insists the bullets were not intended for the three young men.

Ann-Marie Williams

“So they were coming to look for you?”

Javier Saragoza

“No really fi me, but they just want kill we. I no ‘fraid. Because I mi want be di one deh kill fi di lee boy. Because the lee boy dead innocent. They boy just want stir wah problem again, that’s all.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Zelaya hangs on the base?”

Javier Saragoza

“He no even heng out yah. Dah lee boy, dah only ih bredda (brother) does heng with we, but now ih di sell ducunu and thing pan ih cart, ih no come ’round.”

While several bullets hit the victims, the walls of the Chinese grocery across the street was literally sprayed with bullets, leaving holes the size of a shilling.

While police have yet to apprehend the suspects, Saragoza feels they could have been caught immediately.

Javier Saragoza

“Police deh come, especially the Serious Crimes [branch of the police department] deh because as deh come, I tell deh the car gaan through so, lets go. I di jump enna the truck with the Crimes deh; lone Crimes with big gun. I tell deh les go track down the car. Hear weh deh she, “No, deh ‘fraid”. A next patrol vehicle come weh dah ordinary police and I tell deh les to go. And as I tell deh les go so, we di tear back so di look fi di car. But the Serious Crimes deh ‘fraid. Deh deh right yah and I di stop deh and di rail up with deh. I tell deh unu les go so, the car just gaan so. Deh ‘fraid because deh done know that dah big gun the young boy deh got, so they no even want go, and deh dah police.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Didn’t they have their M-16s?”

Javier Saragoza

“They have big guns. Dah lone Serious Crimes enna the big white vehicle, but deh coward last night. I deh right yah, I tell deh, “Hear weh di go on boss, les go ketch di car, les go, deh just gaan so.” And deh no want go with me.”

The killing on Mahogany Street was not the first bloodshed to break the Sabbath. It had been preceded by about an hour in time and a half-mile in distance.

A shooting around 8:30 Sunday night at the corner of Iguana Street and Central American Boulevard in Belize City has left a taxi driver dead.

Ann-Marie Williams

“Reports are that twenty-eight year old Denver Hamilton was working right here on the bonnet of his car when two young men rode up on bicycles and shot him twice in the temple.”

Hamilton’s mother, Mirata said she was just waking from a nap when she heard shots ring out.

Mirata Hamilton, Mother of the Deceased

“I hear pow, pow and the sound come from the boulevard, but I couldn’t believe dah my son. So my daughter, Judith Hamilton, going out towards the boulevard with his cousin, di ker a halfway because she come hail ah. They hear the gunshots and then deh hear somebody seh, “Da Dappa, da Dappa”, because they call ah Dappa, Denver, deh call ah Dappa. And then she gaan cross the boulevard fi get the car and fi gaan dah hospital. But she swing back and she come and tell me. And I run out deh so and I run back and cry.

But too late was the cry as Hamilton had already been transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Tefarra Ferguson, Hamilton’s line-in girlfriend and mother of their three-year-old child couldn’t believe the bad news.

Tefarra Ferguson, Girlfriend of the Deceased

“I didn’t believe it at the moment. it’s still hard to believe that he’s gone…”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Did he have any enemies that you knew of?”

Tefarra Ferguson

“No, not that I know of. Nobody that I know of that would want to do him.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“How difficult is this for a twenty year old woman to cope with?”

Tefarra Ferguson

“Very, very difficult, with my baby.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Do you feel that you’ve lost a lot of your hope now? How are you planning on coping?”

Tefarra Ferguson

“Just day by day. I got to stay strong for my baby.”

According to Mirata, here son had no enemies, although a group of men did cut his wrist last year during a misunderstanding. Still, she feels taking a life has gone too far.

Mirata Hamilton

“It was a surprise. I couldn’t believe deh wah kill mi son.”

Hamilton’s death wasn’t the only misfortune his family had to cope with on Sunday. His house was also burglarised.

Reginald Hamilton, Brother of the Deceased

“The door was broken, it was burglarised. I didn’t see the interior of the house, so I don’t know how much it has been digged up and stuff like that. We didn’t assess what had gone on interior…”

Ann-Marie Williams

“I heard some jewelry was stolen?”

Reginald Hamilton

“Apparently, according to my sister she cannot find a gold chain.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“You find it coincidental that it’s the same night of his death that the house was broken into?”

Reginald Hamilton

“Oh yes, this I think was a plan and it should have come connection to his death.”

Denver Hamilton’s funeral service is scheduled to take place on Thursday at Wesley Methodist Church in Belize City.

Another young man gunned down in the streets of Belize City has left behind a five-year-old daughter. Police say twenty-three year old Marlon Hyde was walking home around 1:00 Saturday morning and upon reaching the corner of King Street and Amara Avenue, shots were fired at him from a vehicle which drove up from behind. Hyde died instantly from a gunshot to the right side of the chest. Police recovered four expended nine-millimetre shells and one, nine-millimetre slug from the scene of the crime. No suspects have been detained in any of the three weekend murders.