Deadly Overnight Shooting Claims Life of a Young Mother of Two
Jasmine Domingo
An internal feud between members of a nefarious Belize City gang has led to the murder of a young mother and a gunshot injury sustained by her four-year-old daughter. Sometime shortly after three a.m., an unknown individual opened fire into a beroom while Jasmine Domingo, her children and her brother were asleep in the lower flat of their family home on Plues Street. When the gunfire subsided, the twenty-three-year-old alerted her siblings and her mother that she had been shot. But Domingo would not survive the deadly ordeal, she passed away shortly after arriving at the K.H.M.H. for emergency medical attention. Her daughter was struck in the thigh by a round that perforated the plycem wall of the building. Belize City police believe that an ongoing rivalry within one of the known gangs operating in that area, may have been the motive behind the deadly attack. News Five’s Isani Cayetano begins our coverage of this tragic incident.
Voice of: Somer Young
Voice of: Somer Young, Sister of Deceased
“I woke up because I smelled something like burn oil or gasoline and that’s what woke me up. And within the split second of me waking up, I heard like pop-shot or dynamite, but I knew it’s not Christmas, so it’s highly impossible and the next thing I knew, my sister yelled, “Nana” because that’s what we call our mom, “Nana, I get shot.”
A twenty-three-year-old mother is dead and her kids are now left without their parents. It happened overnight in the Plues Street neighborhood of Belize City where Jasmine Domingo was asleep with her two children. In the wee small hours this morning, someone approached the property and fired at least three rounds into the exterior walls and window of the lower flat.
Voice of Somer Young
“Me and my little brother ran to her room and that’s when we saw she was laying on the bed with blood all over her and the kids and my brother went to seek help from the police and we went to the hospital after that. Then moments after, my mom left with my sister and we found out that my niece was also injured, her four-year-old daughter.”
The deadly attack on the family may have been the result of an ongoing feud involving Domingo. Kareen Young is aware that her niece was being menaced prior to the violence that visited their home this morning.
Kareen Young
Kareen Young, Aunt of Deceased
“There had been some threats recently but, you know, I noh know if da affa dat. We suspect, but I don’t really know, you know, enough details and thing, so I just go with what they tell me, you know. There’s just different rivalry going on, you know, soh dat da weh I think happened, you know.”
Isani Cayetano
“When you responded to news that there was a shooting here overnight, you got here, you found out that your niece had been killed, what is the state of her daughter?”
Kareen Young
“She is in the hospital with a gunshot wound to her thigh. Yes, but she is okay.”
According to Domingo’s older sibling, she was made to understand that a police report had been filed against an individual with whom her sister had an issue.
Isani Cayetano
“Somer, what could have been the cause of all of this?”
Somer Young
“I’m not sure, but when I went to the station this morning, the officer explained [that] some altercation went on between her and a young man and she went to the station to make a report. I’m not sure exactly what happened, the officer did not go into details about the incident, but that was something that was mentioned at the station.”
Jasmine Domingo
Isani Cayetano
“This must be a difficult time for you guys, I mean, coming down and seeing your sister in that state, and she did not make it, and then seeing her daughter also injured. How are you guys processing this?”
Somer Young
“It’s really hard. Two years ago, November will make three, her children’s dad passed away the same way, gun violence. So it’s really hard to know that my sister passed way the same way that, you know, her kids’ father passed away and now my niece and my nephew are left without both parents.”
It’s a tragedy that has deeply affected the family. The shock of such a traumatic experience is still being processed by Jasmine’s loved ones.
Kareen Young
“We are god-fearing people so, you know, we’re just praying and asking God for strength and, you know, and we are a tight-knit family. So, you know, god-fearing people, so we are just, you know, together coping with what had happened and trying to process what had happened.”
Isani Cayetano for News Five.
