Urban warfare: one dead and minor injured, but was it gang related?

Ryan Arnold

Two men were shot on Tuesday night as a surge in urban warfare grips the City. On Tuesday night following the funeral of Supal Street’s Tarique Cadle who was murdered last week, a spray of bullets was unleashed at seven men hanging out at Armadillo Street, not far from where Cadle once lived.  When the gunfire subsided, a minor and Ryan Arnold were injured. The minor was taken to the hospital, treated and released, but Arnold was shot multiple times to the back and died hours later. Duane Moody spoke today to the minor, who survived the attack.

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Duane Moody, Reporting

Urban warfare is on the surge. It started with the shooting of two known George Street affiliates on King Street last Wednesday. And by Thursday morning, Tarique Cadle from Supal Street was gunned down on Plues Street and his uncle, Jason “Soup” Williams, detained for the aforementioned shooting. On Tuesday afternoon, Cadle was laid to rest and by five-thirty, shots rang out at a yard on Armadillo Street, just around the corner from the Raccoon Street Police Station. Two persons, twenty-one year old Ryan Arnold and fifteen year old Marvin Phillips, were injured.

ASP Suzette Anderson, Deputy O.C., Precinct 1, Belize City Police Department

Suzette Anderson

“The persons affected by the incident were already carried to the hospital so our officers proceeded to the K.H.M.H. where they saw one Ryan Arnold, a twenty year old Belizean laborer of a Euphrates Avenue address, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the lower back and apparent gunshot wound to the lower abdomen. A second male person, Marvin Phillips, fifteen year old student of Armadillo Street, was seen with an apparent gunshot wound to the right leg. Both male persons, Arnold and Phillips, were inside the yard at Armadillo Street when they were approached by a male person armed with a firearm who fired the shots in their direction. At the time, both Phillips and Arnold were in the company of five other male persons inside the said yard. The scene was processed and there were some expended shell and a slug that was retrieved from such scene.”

But twelve hours later, at about six-thirty-three this morning, Arnold died inside the recovery room of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Arnold was hit multiple times to the back.

Marsha Arnold, Mother of Murder Victim

“My niece called my work and tell me that my son get shot. They say he was in surgery; ih got two shot in the back and one in the hand. The bullets in his back punctured all his organs and stuff and I think that is the bullet that caught him in the back was the fatal shot that killed him.”

Phillips on the other hand was much more fortunate; he was treated and released from the hospital. He was shot to the right thigh and to the left arm. Phillips says that they were targeted because of a gang rivalry between Supal Street and George Street Gangs. He recounted for us what happened.

Voice of: Marvin Phillips, Shooting Victim

“I mi di hang out ina wah yard around five-thirty. Me and some other guys mi di hang out and wah gunman just run up pan we and start to shoot up atta we. Dehn di talk about how they wah come back for us once we noh dead. Dehn wah come back fi we and dehn dah from Supal.”

Duane Moody

“This person just came out of nowhere? He had on mask, anything?”

Voice of: Marvin Phillips

“No, he come barefaced. He neva had on mask or anything and he just come ina di yard and haul out ih gun and just start to beat it atta we. We started to run. I started to run and I feel di shot ina my foot, but I neva mi di pay it no mind. I just had my mind pan di run fi get weh.  Ryan neva know weh fu run go. He mi di try jump the fence and when he mi di try jump di fence, dehn shoot ahn up ina ih lone back and he drop and when he drop dah right deh he stay.”

But according to his mother Marsha, Ryan was not a gang member, but simply grew up in the George Street Area.

Marsha Arnold

Marsha Arnold

“I won’t say my son was a part of a gang. My son grow up West Street/George Street; that’s where he lived; that’s his neighborhood. I wouldn’t say he was a part of George Street, but you know nowadays, if you live in an area, they always say that if a gang is there that you are a part of the gang. So I wouldn’t say that my son was a part of a gang. Everybody know Ryan from West Street/George Street. From growing up, Ryan is my everything, was my everything. From growing up, he was a friendly person. He likes friends. He loves his sister and brother; he loves me. Ryan was a nice person and for them to take my son’s life like that, god is not sleeping. What goes around comes around.”

Police currently have one person detained for the shooting murder. Duane Moody for News Five.

News Five has learnt that the detainee is a well-known affiliate of Supal Street Gang.