Eleven bullets end life of city youth
On Tuesday police are expected to charge a suspect in connection with the murder of twenty-four year old Alfonso Vernon. Around 10:30 on Saturday morning, Vernon was on North Creek in Belize City when an assailant riddled his body with a total of eleven gunshots. Initial reports say it was a drive-by shooting, however, Maureen Smith says authorities have told the family that her son was murdered following an argument he had with someone known only as Jamal. This evening Smith told News 5’s Jacqueline Woods that she could not believe the barbarity of the killing. At this point all she wants is justice.
Maureen Smith, Alfonso’s Mother
“I saw one here, two in here and there are several here and one up about here.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Do you know why anybody would want to kill your son?”
Maureen Smith
“Miss, I don’t think nobody at all suppose to kill somebody that way, nobody at all. Nobody have any right to do something like that.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What did the police tell you, that he was shot after some argument?”
Maureen Smith
“Yeah, well he say after some argument that was what really happen.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Yo don’t know what they were arguing about?”
Maureen Smith
“No, I don’t know.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Where was he when he got shot?”
Maureen Smith
“He was on North Creek, I think.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Was he on a bicycle, inside a yard?”
Maureen Smith
“What I heard, he was in a yard and the young man shot him and he ran and when he ran, he continue to bullet him, threw the bullets at him.”
Jacqueline Woods
“By the time you got to the K.H.M.H., was your son already dead?”
Maureen Smith
“He was already dead, because as I went in I say him lying this way, I looked at him and said, nobody can survive shots like those, that’s impossible. And when I went, I hold his hand I said, Miss, this child is dead.”
Jacqueline Woods
“The police now have a suspect in connection with your son’s shooting. What is it you’d want to see happen?”
Maureen Smith
“Well I just want to see justice serve, because he is no God and God wouldn’t do a thing like that to somebody. And I would really want to see him get his just, what he deserves.”
The police say they have a suspect in custody, but because he has not yet been charged they have declined to release his name. The killing of Gregory Batty and Alfonso Vernon are murders number seven and eight for 2003.
