Byron Herrera Executed in Orange Walk Town

Byron Herrera

This morning, the father of Orange Walk’s latest murder victim was at the cemetery in that northern municipality, taking measurements and preparing to lay his son to rest.  On Saturday night, shots rang out in an area just beyond the People’s Stadium in Orange Walk.  Byron Herrera had been killed by at least one gunman who opened fire on him. The deceased received multiple gunshot wounds to his body and was found beside a black scooter. News Five’s Duane Moody headed north today and files this story.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Just before eleven o’clock on Saturday night, a barrage of bullets rang out on San Francisco Street, in Orange Walk Town. When the shooting subsided, twenty-seven-year-old Byron Herrera lay dead beneath an elevated wooden house. It happened so quickly.  According to Bernard Herrera, he received the dreaded call and rushed to the location where his son was fatally injured.

Bernard Herrera

Bernard Herrera, Father of Deceased

“I jump ina my car with my sleeping clothes and everything and I went out there. When I went out there, the police dehn mi just reach about two minutes three minutes and they didn’t want to let me go see him. But from standing on the street, I could see a body under the house. And I pray mein, I hope dah noh my son, I hope dah somebody else. All dah while I di got fate cause he noh live dah di house. It’s for him the house.”

His worst fear was confirmed when he identified his son a few minutes before he was transported to the Northern Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Bernard Herrera

“When I went there and they take out the body bag and when dehn zip di face, I see dah my son. I tell them yes, yes dah he. Dah my son. I hug him up and I kiss he. From weh I see when he was under the house, I just could see some bullet wounds in the back cause it look like dehn turn him like that or he fell like that. But I think they heist up his shirt and I just see some red spots cause ih neva bleed wah lot pan the ground. Just a lot of red spots and I was like my God, my God, how could dehn do this to my son?”

Byron Herrera

So who would want Byron dead and why?

Bernard Herrera

“You heard a lot of thing. Yo hear it is a love thing, yo hear it’s drugs, yo hear it is for shooting – all kinda thing yo hear.”

Duane Moody

“What are the police saying?”

Bernard Herrera

“Well about the shooting. The guys look like they were waiting for him. But how the guys know that he would have been there, it puzzles me.”

Duane Moody

“So you think he was set up, maybe?”

Bernard Herrera

“Yeah. I think he was set up cause he is smarter than that. I think he was set up by somebody weh ih mi trust because when I went to the house, the cycle weh ih mi deh pan was parked in front of the step. And then where the entrance of the yard is, where the police say the bullet might have come from, he could see the people them, he could see clearly, clearly, clearly, which make I believe again that it was somebody he knew. A barrage of bullets, he can’t escape all of that. So he fell and when he fell, according to the police, it looks to them like the shooter or shooters – because they say it was about twenty rounds, something like that fired – stand over him and start firing shots.”

And while there are several theories as to why Byron may have been murdered, his father confirmed to News Five that several threats were made on his son’s life prior to the deadly shooting. Mostly recently, the house where the murder happened had been targeted by gunmen.

Bernard Herrera

“They threaten ih life about two times or so before that so he noh really stay around there and he noh really deh pan di street dah night. So it mi surprising to me what he di do deh. So I believe that maybe somebody set him up or something like that. Prior to this here, I think it was three weeks ago, they went and dehn shoot the house. They went and shoot the house; he was not there. But see Byron is a person, he keep secret things from his family. His friends know more than us about his enemy, his movements and what he do, even where he put, maybe got some stuff to hide. Ih friends know lot more than we; he noh disclose dehn kinda information to his family.”

Duane Moody for News Five.