Three bystanders injured in Sat. night shootout
Another day, more bloodshed…as on Saturday night, several Belize City residents would find themselves trapped in the middle of a shootout. According to police, around nine p.m. two young men, each armed with a sawed off shotgun met up with one of their enemies. A hail of gunfire ensued and when it was over, three innocent people had been shot, while the intended target escaped uninjured. Jacqueline Woods has more.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Shortly after 9:00 on Saturday night, sixty-six year old James Lewis was inside his restaurant and bar, Marie’s Diner, at the corner of Faber’s Road and Central American Boulevard when he was hit by a stray bullet.
James Lewis, Shooting Victim
“We were sitting down in the bar there watching boxing. I went behind the bar because somebody order two beers and we gone get the beer. As I opened the beer, the shot fired and I feel I got hit in my hand and I told him, boy that dah shot, duck. From there we looked outside, we saw all the people out there shooting after one another, then another shot bust. That’s all I know and I saw a crowd out there.”
Lewis would later be treated for a gunshot wound to his left hand. Police recovered at least five pellets Marie’s Diner. Another victim, identified as Keisha Ferrel was shot in her right breast as she walked down Faber’s Road. She has since been released from the hospital. But the incident has left the businessman shaken.
James Lewis
“Well its getting worse and worse because this is happen daily now. Something has to be done bout it. I don’t know what the government gonna do, but somebody have to do something.”
In all, three persons were hit by the stray bullets of the shootout. Fortunately no one was fatally injured. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.
According to authorities, the intended target in the shooting was a man identified as Wayne Welch. News 5 understands that the shooters wanted to hurt Welch because he had previously confronted them about an incident in which Welch’s girlfriend was slapped by one of the two men. The shooters have since been identified as twenty-one year old Joel Usher and twenty-one year old Jeffrey Gill. Both men have been charged with four counts each of attempted murder, wounding and deadly means of harm.
