Gizmo Escapes Death Again

Gion “Gizmo” Bernard

There have been numerous attempts on the life of Gion “Gizmo” Bernard, a street figure from the Victoria Street area in Belize City. In the past two weeks, there were two attempts to cut him down, but Bernard has managed to stay alive. Over the weekend, he was targeted by a group of men in a vehicle. Gizmo was injured on the arm and a woman, a victim of circumstance was hit in the drive by shooting. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Another blatant attempt has been made on the life of thirty-one-year-old Gion ‘Gizmo’ Bernard.  On Saturday night, Bernard was reportedly on his way to an event on Victoria Street and was standing on the sidewalk in front of this residence when a vehicle pulled up.  Its passengers wasted no time, opening fire indiscriminately at their quarry, as well as a companion with whom Bernard was socializing.  A volley of at least five shots was discharged and when the gunfire subsided two persons, including Bernard and the young lady, had been wounded.  According to the female victim, who asked to remain unidentified, she was seated atop this concrete fence when she observed a dark colored vehicle approach.  When she realized what was about to take place she attempted to seek refuge by stooping down behind the barrier.  By then however, the shooting had already begun.  The lower part of the concrete fence is pockmarked and several slugs also indented the adjacent wooden door.  Fortunately, both persons survived the violent attack but would not escape unscathed.  The nine millimeter round tore through her lower left leg, just below the knee.  Bernard was hit in the upper left arm.  It is the second unsuccessful attempt at members of his family within the past two weeks.  It is also the second incident where a young woman is injured during the gunmen’s pursuit of their target.  On Tuesday, May seventeenth, shortly after eight o’clock that night, Belize City police responded to the sound of gunfire at the intersections of Freetown and Barrack roads.  Upon arrival, they observed nineteen-year-old Chiaoma Williams suffering from a graze to her left hip and a wound to her right buttock.  Investigations would later reveal that she was walking near the junction when a pair of men on a motorcycle drove by and let loose a barrage of shots, injuring Williams.  That incident, believed to be a bid on Bernard’s sibling, was preceded by a previous shooting back in January.