Random violence takes life of Jaime Pelayo in Orange Walk

Jaime Pelayo Jr.

An Orange Walk resident is dead, following an early morning attack that left him mortally injured and a pair of women he was socializing with grazed by bullets.  Jaime Pelayo Junior was shot and killed while he was hanging out with friends near a popular establishment in the Sugar City. The father of one was talking with two ladies on the street when a man approached and fired several shots in their direction and within minutes Pelayo Junior had succumbed to his injuries. His family says that a random shooter killed him and they don’t believe that he was deliberately targeted. He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. News Five’s Andrea Polanco was in Orange Walk Town today and has the following story.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Jaime Pelayo Jr., known to most as ‘James’, was out socializing at this bar on Belize-Corozal Road in Orange Walk Town around four this morning. But after hanging with friends, he walked out of the establishment and stood on the side of the street where he was talking with two women. Shortly after, just before four-thirty, a man approached the area, pulled out a gun and fired several shots in Pelayo’s direction. The thirty-five-year-old Orange Walk Town resident was hit to the chest and he died shortly after. His Father is a nighttime security guard – he was on the job when he found out about his son’s killing in the early hours of this morning. He recounts what he heard happened.

Jaime Pelayo Sr., Father of Deceased

Jaime Pelayo Sr.

“They were upstairs on the verandah, having some drinks and this guy was intoxicated. He went in to his and pulled out a 16-gauge shotgun and start firing; just start firing and regrettably. He was hit in the chest.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, you don’t think your son was a target?”

Jaime Pelayo Sr.

“No. No. No. No target. This was a random shooting – this is somebody intoxicated who just pull out the gun and start shoot into the air but actually in the direction where he was standing and regrettably he received a blast to the chest and some pellets penetrated deep into the heart and that was it.”

Andrea Polanco

“He died on the spot?”

Jaime Pelayo Sr.

“Well, as far as I was told, couple minutes after he was dead.”

Pelayo died minutes after he was shot. The two women on the scene narrowly escaped – with one grazed to the chest. But why would this man randomly fire indiscriminately and in Pelayo’s direction? Did something happen at the bar earlier? Did these men know each other?

Jaime Pelayo Sr.

“No. No. No. No friendship. No relationship. No love affair. Nothing whatsoever. The guy was just intoxicated, took out the gun and start to shoot. And he was bad lucked enough to get hit. I look at the news, Belize news every evening and I have seen many deaths; unwanted deaths. People just get shot. They were at the wrong place at the right time to get hit and that was where my son was; he was at the wrong place at the right time for this guy to act in such irresponsible manner.”

Pelayo Sr. says that while his namesake was no saint, he died while he was out just socializing – so his murder comes unexpected because he was not involved in any conflict at the time of his death. And now he has learnt that the prime suspect has been detained – all he can hope for is that his son’s killer will be held accountable.

Jaime Pelayo Sr.

“He had his enemies as everybody does. Little bad egg as everybody does. Sadly, he did not go taking part in fights or squabbles with anybody or anything with anybody. He was just relaxing a having a few drinks and it happened. I was at the police station and I was told that the fellow is acting crazy like a lunatic; making noise and trying to do all kinda things as if he is crazy, which seems to be the norm in Belize. You want to get away from something you act crazy and the court let you go. I hope this doesn’t happen because James didn’t deserve to go like that.”

Andrea Polanco reporting News Five.