Shooting incident occurs at home where previous murders occurred
Just before news time, Lawrence Elijio was shot on Jasmine Street, which intersects with Marigold Lane. We’ll have more details on that shooting later, but it is in the area where another shooting took place early this morning. Twenty-three year old Troy Bowen remains hospitalized with gunshot injures tonight. Bowen was fired upon this morning by two gunmen as he walked on Marigold Lane. At least ten shots were heard by neighbors in an area that has become a hot zone for urban violence. Bowen was also targeted earlier this month but police do not know if the incidents are related. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporitng
Less than three weeks after being shot in the right side of the head twenty-three year old stevedore Troy Bowen is once again recovering from gunshot wounds at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Shortly before eight o’clock this morning a stream of bullets were fired during a violent exchange between Bowen and an unknown assailant. The incident was the second known attempt on the young man’s life when as many as ten shots were let loose near the corner of Black Orchid Street and Marigold Lane. Ironically, it is the same location where he was shot below the right temple on August fifth while standing with a female companion.
It is unclear why Bowen is wanted dead and the brazen shooting earlier today continues to raise concerns from residents of the area. On May ninth, Donovan Bailey was fatally wounded whilst socializing with three other men in an adjacent yard. During that incident a single round made its way through the exterior wall of a wooden house, the living room and a bedroom before coming to rest. One of the victims, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, was grazed on his stomach.
Voice of: Shooting Victim (File: May 9th, 2011)
“Yeah just mi di socializing when they just appear and just start to shoot up cause where they came from dark, dark. I woulda really want wah lee light dah the lamppost. We always call pan B.E.L. to come put wah lee light and they noh come at all. Cause the place dark and you can’t see nobody. That dah wah concern, we wouldn’t mind they come put wah light there cause we’ve been asking for light for years and still no light. Lone workers come and heng out yah. Everybody weh come yah got wah job. Dah just workers; everybody got wah job. They usually come socialize here and then after that everybody go home.”
Donovan Bailey
While the most recent incident occurred in daylight police scoured the area for expended shells but were only able to recover a single jacket. Bowen, we are told, was hit in the upper left chest and remains in stable condition.
In a separate incident which took place on March twenty-first another young man was also killed on Black Orchid Street, less than a stone’s throw away from today’s shooting. Twenty-two year old Brandon Gibson fell victim to gun violence during an altercation in which it was alleged that he was in the area to carry out an execution when the weapon he was wielding apparently jammed. Gibson’s intended target, it is believed, subsequently fired two shots mortally wounding him.
Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer [File: March 21, 2011]
Fitzroy Yearwood
“On Friday, sometime after nine C.I.B. personnel responded to a report on Black Orchid Street where they saw the lifeless body of Brandon Gibson. Somewhere partially in a drain. Initial investigation revealed that Gibson was involved in an altercation with some members from a residence on that street and that is where he received his fatal blow.”
Whether or not these three incidents might be related is still anyone’s guess; however, Belize City police are investigating this latest episode on Black Orchid Street. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
Police are looking for Gilbert Craig and Theodore Andrews in connection with this morning’s shooting.
