Another Shooting in Conch Shell Bay…
Since the beginning of the New Year, residents in the Conch Shell Bay neighborhood have been plagued by a spate of deadly shootings. The bloodbath in that area began on January first when the country recorded the first homicide for 2017. It is unclear whether the ensuing attacks are all related; however, what is known is that the people living in the community are on edge, following the latest attempt on the life of a neighbor. Shortly before nine o’clock on Monday night, a barrage of gunshots rang out in the vicinity of Lindo’s Alley. When the smoke cleared, a nineteen-year-old youth was seen suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck. He remains hospitalized tonight where he is fighting for his life. The attack on Keimar Nicholas is the most recent in an onslaught that began several weeks ago. News Five’s Andrea Polanco takes a comprehensive look at the crime situation in Conch Shell Bay.
Andrea Polanco, Reporting
Around eight-forty on Monday night, nineteen-year-old Keimar Nicholas was socializing here on this basketball court in front of his house in Lindo’s Alley when he was shot. Nicholas and some friends were hanging out when someone rode up bicycle and fired several shots. One of the bullets hit Nicholas to the left side of the neck. The teenager is now listed in a critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit at the KHMH.
Following the shooting, police later discovered this bicycle believed to belong to the gunman. The bike was found on Cemetery Road. This Sig Sauer brand weapon with an empty magazine, believed to have been used in the shooting, was also dumped in a yard on Mosul Street – and later recovered by Police.
The latest shooting is the third for this year, targeting men from the Conch Shell Bay Area – with two fatalities. On January first, twenty-two-year-old Collin Sutherland was shot and killed as he walked on the Youth for the Future Drive – where a man in a vehicle lay waited him. A little over two weeks later, police arrested and charged Pink’s Alley resident Daniel Caine with Sutherland’s murder.
But less than a week after that arrest, another attempt was made on the lives of two Conch Shell Bay residents – brothers Clinton and Michael Frazer. On Sunday night, the siblings were socializing in front of the Conch Shell Bay Fish Market when at least two men rode up on separate bicycles and fired multiple shots – one fatally wounding Clinton Frazer and one injuring his younger brother Michael Frazer. Less than twenty four hours later, police arrested and charged Henry Rudolph Harris with murder and attempted murder for the Frazer brothers.
Police can’t make a connection among the shootings and murders – or to say whether they were committed in retaliation of the multiple murders around the City. What is there to tell is that four men from the Conch Shell Bay Area have been targeted near their home – two are dead; two are injured and recovering.
In an interview on Monday, Police said that their interventions continue in that area – since gunmen targeted two Conch Shell Bay residents.
Fitzroy Yearwood
Insp. Fitzroy Yearwood, Media Officer, Belize Police Department
“I can assure you that O.C. E.D. South, ACP Williams, is doing his intervention and he will continue to do his intervention in that area, as well as other areas on the Southside of Belize City. We are cognizant of the fact that, yes, this is a second murder in that area and we are looking at some angles of our intervention as well.”
Andrea Polanco
“Do you anticipate any retaliation for this murder?”
Insp. Fitzroy Yearwood
“Well, at the Police Department we do not anticipate anything. We try our best to prevent.”
Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.
