The Felix Family Home is Ambushed and Showered with Bullets; a Wife and Daughter Are Seriously Injured

Etana Bennett

Just before news time, a Felix family member told News Five the tragic news that a three-year-old girl has succumbed to gunshot injuries to the head. She reportedly died at five-thirteen p.m. at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.  Her mother was also wounded as they slept at their Gill Street home in the city. The two were with Roy Bennett when they came under gunfire.  Bennett, the mother’s common-law-husband, believed to have been the target, escaped unhurt. It happened on Sunday morning after two o’clock; the gunman walked into an adjacent yard and opened fire.  The Felix family has survived a checkered past beset by gun violence.   The same house on Gill Street has been ambushed before and two brothers and a sister have been murdered separately while a fourth survived a shooting. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

In the dead of night, the harrowing report of gunshots startled a family of three sleeping soundly inside their home on Gill Street.  It is a scene eerily reminiscent of a predawn attack at this very residence on January sixth, 2013.  This time, however, the spray of bullets injured a mother and daughter, as an unknown gunman fired repeatedly into the wooden structure.  When the shooting subsided, three-year-old Etana Bennett and her mother Alva Moody were both injured.  The toddler had been struck by a single round to the right side of the temple, her twenty-eight-year-old mother shot multiple times to the buttocks, right lower thigh and abdomen.

Sharon Faber

Sharon Faber, Mother/Grandmother of Shooting Victims

“I get a call from Karl Heusner [Memorial Hospital].  The security called me and told me that dehn just rush mi daughter and mi granddaughter, dat dehn get shot up, you know.  Then I went to the hospital and when I get there I saw them fi true.  Mi daughter get four shot, one eena ih hand ya, one here, one da ih buttocks and one eena di belly and ih hand bruk.  And mi granddaughter get headshot.  She deh eena di ICU place.”

Police say an intruder approached the Felix family home sometime after two a.m. on Sunday and let loose of volley of shots at the bedroom.  Inside the residence was Roy Bennett and his loved ones.

Alejandro Cowo

ASP Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Belize City

“Three persons were at their house at 6 Gill Street sleeping, namely Ms. Alva Moody, a twenty-eight-year-old Belizean, a minor, a three-year-old minor and her common-law husband, Mr. Roy Bennett.  Three of them were sleeping inside of a room when they were awakened by the sounds of shots being fired.  Later on they realized that the minor was injured along with Ms. Moody.  Both of them were transported to the hospital where they are still admitted.  The minor is in a critical condition at this moment.”

According to Sharon Faber, her granddaughter Etana, whom she says is a godsend to her son-in-law since his sibling, Feeshia Felix, was fatally shot in a similar ambush five years ago, is clinging to life in the intensive care unit.

Alva Moody & Etana Bennett

Isani Cayetano

“What are doctors telling you about the prognosis, the chances of your granddaughter at this point?”

Sharon Faber

“Well di docta seh ih have ninety percent chance and dehn ker ahn eena theater and dehn tek out di bullet, but so dehn seh dat di swelling, dehn di wait fi di swelling go down, yoh know.  Dehn seh dehn di wait fi di swelling go down.”

As it relates to the shooting, Faber says she is clueless and doesn’t know what led to the unfortunate incident.  It is believed, however, that the intended target was Roy Bennett.  Despite escaping unharmed, a sound message has been delivered to Bennett at the expense of his wife and kid.

Sharon Faber

“I don’t know, I noh know nothing and I di try fi ask mi daughter weh happen, yoh know, fi mek deh again and shot up di place, yoh know, and injure mi granddaughter.  I noh know, I di ask mi daughter da what.  All weh I get da di call.  Ah mi deh da mi work and all I mi get da di call and a rush da hospital.  Di security call me and tell me dehn just rush mi daughter and mi granddaughter, you know, but I noh know, I cyant get da weh happen mek dehn gaan shot up deh.”

A police checkpoint has since been placed a hop and a skip away from the scene of the early morning onslaught.  That placement, nonetheless, is not permanent.

ASP Alejandro Cowo

“As you have seen, there are many checkpoints in different parts of the city, especially in E.D. [Eastern Division] Region One.  This is the area where most of the shootings are occurring, so there are more police presence in those areas at this moment.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.

Later in the newscast, we revisit a comprehensive story on the Felix family which first aired on January seventh, 2013 when Feesha Felix was killed at the same house on Gill Street.