City resident gunned down hours after teen’s murder

Two horrible murders in a span of less than twenty-four hours in Belize City; it’s not really a record in statistics, but it is all shocking. The murder of Dylan Ayuso, a student of Wesley College, was followed by the execution style slaying of Norman Gillett on Tuesday night just after eight o’clock when a volley of gunshots ended his life. Marion Ali has a report on the City’s latest homicide.

Marion Ali, Reporting
The bloodstains still fresh on the steps and ground at the House of Commons on Vernon Street are the telltale signs of another gory murder on Tuesday night. Thirty-six year old Norman Gillett and another man had reportedly just arrived at the building where they lived when someone followed them and opened fire. The gunman discharged a barrage of bullets at Gillett, before scaling the back fence and disappearing into the night. An emotional Patrick Rogers, who founded the Commoners Reform Movement, was on his usual Tuesday night radio show when he heard the bullets that killed his friend.

Patrick Rogers, Founder, House of Commons
“If we could have found wah way fi get more resources around commoners we could have dehn brothers dah di farm, which dah weh all ah dehn mi want reach. Everybody want wah escape from dis city. We had promised dem dat we have some lee farmland weh mi wah get going mek dehn could change dehn life. Man appoint and God disappoint noh. All he talks about are his kids and how much he wants to change his life for his kids to make sure dehn finish high school because ih seh dat I keep talking about dat fifty-five percent of wi high school aged kids that are not in school. Dah dehn di come back come terrorize wi because dehn have no reasoning, dehn have no discipline.”

Gillett moved out of his mother’s house two years ago and went to live at the House of Commoners. His profession was a woodcarver out at the Tourism Village. And according to his mother and a friend, he was a loving family man.

Olive Gillett, Mother of Murder Victim
“Monday right yah ih come hail me. Ih deh right yah and ih mi di play wid ih nephew and ih niece dehn just like dat. So me surprised miss.”

Marion Ali
“Weh ih tell you when ih come Monday?”

Olive Gillett
“Ih ask me, ma yoh alright and I tell ah yes. And ih start to play wid ih niece and ih nephew dehn. And ih jump pan ih bike and I seh yoh gwein and ih seh yeah. Ih seh I wah come back come hail yoh lata and ih gone.”

Friend of Murder Victim
“I wonder if they know what they did to Pinks Alley people. I tired ah dis, Marion. I know what they did, I know who they are. I know weh deh punk come from too.”

Marion Ali
“You think they wanted to kill him?”

Friend of Murder Victim
“My homeboy took fourteen bullets. That’s what I understand last night. They wanted to kill him. They kill anybody when they’re looking for the president and they can’t find Bin Laden. That’s why I’m speaking to you under this mask because I don’t want them to come for my family.”

The incident has left Rogers making a realistic analysis of what life has been reduced to.

Patrick Rogers
“Life get so cheap now that wah young man could come with two pocketful of bullets and two guns and empty it eena wah man pan wah veranda and wah place of peace, it’s beyond me because we tek P.U.P., U.D.P., V.I.P., Crips, Bloods anything.”

Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.

This afternoon twenty-one year old Herman Miranda, a suspect in Gillett’s murder was charged with Kept Unlicensed Ammunition. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to two years and is expected to be charged with Murder. Miranda was picked up after the murder at a house on Vernon Street.