Woman Recovers at the K.H.M.H. following Shooting in the Old Capital

A woman was shot in Belize City on Monday night just before eight o’clock. She is fifty-year old Kathia Williams, a long time resident of Benbow Street. Williams came under attack as she stood on Kraal Road. It is believed that the bullets were not meant for her, but she came in harm’s way and was hit to chest and abdomen. Williams was taken to the K.H.M.H. where she underwent surgery and is in critical, but stable condition. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Just before eight p.m. on Monday, the blasts of about twelve shots echoed into the distance on Kraal Road. When the gunfire subsided, a woman had been hit multiple times.  Fifty-year-old Kathia Williams, a resident of Benbow Street, at its intersection with Kraal Road, was injured to the chest and abdomen by a gunman who approached her and unleashed a barrage of bullets in her direction before escaping towards South Street.

Shane Williams

Shane Williams, Son of Shooting Victim

“I was planning a camp for at-risk youths right from right around that neighbourhood and while I was planning that baseball/softball camp, I was called by my sister that my mother was shot. It didn’t register, I didn’t panic or anything cause I really couldn’t understand…weh yo mean? Who would shot? So I came to the hospital and when I got here all my family and relatives were there crying. My first thing that I had to make sure was that she wasn’t dead. The fact that I learnt that she wasn’t dead was a relief.”

“Miss Kay” as she is affectionately known is well-respected in the area as there is where she’s lived for years and it is the family’s home. It is believed that the gunman’s target was a group of men who were socializing in front of William’s property about twenty minutes earlier.

Shane Williams

“My mother was out in the yard relaxing getting some breeze like she normally does around that time in the evening. Just before the incident happened, she chased some of the young boys who were hanging out in front of the yard, basically saying this house is not bulletproof so this house is not a hang out base, so she chased them. So about twenty minutes after that, she started hearing shots, noticed someone was just firing towards the house and she got shot twice; one of the left side of the chest and once to the abdomen. Fortunately, the shot to the left side of the chest didn’t really entire into the body; it went straight through the breast so it was an entrance and exit [wound]. But the shot to the abdomen damaged her small intestines and ovaries. So the medical team had to do an emergency surgery to repair the small intestine and had to remove the ovary.”

Kathia Williams is now in a critical, but stable condition inside the intensive care unit of the K.H.M.H.

Shane Williams

“She’s expected to recover from the injuries, but right now the problem is she has an issue with her leg because the shot to the abdomen seem to have damaged her leg. I think the bullet ricocheted and it is lodged in the right leg so right now she has difficulty with that leg. But being injured is better than being dead.”

Shane says that as a family, they are dealing with the trauma, but also want to ensure that there is no flare up of violence in the area, which for some time now has been relatively quiet.

Shane Williams

“It is our home; we will never leave from that area. The one thing that I am focused on is her recovery, my sister’s recovery; the grandkids, hope that this trauma doesn’t last. The second thing is to make sure that our relatives and friends in the neighbourhood don’t retaliate. Ensure that there is no retaliation or escalation of violence in the area because it is our home [and] we cannot have this turn into a war zone as it has been once in the past. It has been much, much better in recent times and we hope that some way we can ensure that the peace continues.”

News Five has been reliably informed that a resident of Tigris Street has been detained pending further investigation.  Duane Moody for News Five.

Shane Williams says he is grateful to the police officers who transported his mother to the hospital and Doctor Mungia and his team at the K.H.M.H. for saving his mother’s life.