Ezekiel Usher is Gunned Down on Rio Bravo Crescent
Ezekiel Usher
Twenty-four hours later, there was another murder in Belize City. Shortly after ten o’clock on Saturday night, Ezekiel Usher, an employee of Transparent B.P.O., was gunned down across the street from where he lived on Faber’s Road. One of two men who drove up on a motorcycle unleashed a volley of bullets that ultimately took Usher’s life. A sixty-one-year-old resident of Forest Home, Toledo, who was in the area, was also injured in the shooting. It appears she was at the wrong place on Saturday night. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
An ongoing rivalry among groups of young men in the vicinity of Fabers Road Extension has resulted in the murder of thirty-three-year-old Ezekiel Usher. On Saturday night, Usher, a resident of Rio Bravo Crescent, went over to a neighbour’s house just across the street from where he lives. While there, he reportedly asked for a cigarette. It was during that time that a pair of men on motorcycle emerged on the scene. A barrage of gunshots reverberated across the neighbourhood.
Sr. Supt. Hilberto Romero, Deputy Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch
“On Saturday, February 22nd, 2020, around 10:10 p.m., police visited the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where they found Joyce Edwards and Ezekiel Usher with gunshot injuries. The information reveals that Ezekiel Usher was at Rio Bravo Crescent, Belize City, when two male persons came on a motorcycle and fired shots towards his direction, causing the injuries. Joyce Edwards was in a vehicle in the area at the time and as a result she received gunshot injuries. Ezekiel Usher passed away at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital thereafter, after receiving treatment.”
Witnesses describe one of the assailants as wearing a white t-shirt, black pants and a red cap. He is said to have gotten off the motorbike and proceeded in the direction of Usher and the other persons he was standing with in an adjacent property. As many as eleven expended nine millimeter shells were recovered from the scene of the shooting.
Hilberto Romero
Sr. Supt. Hilberto Romero
“We are seeking two persons in regards to this investigation.”
Reporter
“Sir, now as we understand it, the sixty-one-year-old victim was not the intended target.”
Sr. Supt. Hilberto Romero
“No, she was not the intended target. She was in the area at the time when the shooting happened.”
Upon realizing that Edwards had been injured, her son-in-law immediately rushed her to the K.H.M.H. He told police that whilst driving along Rio Bravo Crescent, he heard several loud bangs that sounded like gunshots. He then observed that Edwards, a resident of Forest Home, Toledo District, had been struck by a round that flew into the vehicle.
Duane Moody
“What is the motive behind this?”
Sr. Supt. Hilberto Romero
“We do not have a motive at this time.”
Reporter
“Sir can it be argued that this shooter or these shooters are becoming more and more indiscriminate in that this sixty-one-year-old elderly woman was just in the area and shots were fired indiscriminately and she was hit and now she’s fighting for her life.”
Sr. Supt. Hilberto Romero
“Yes, well that is the information we had, [that] several shots were fired.”
According to Usher’s sister, he reluctantly came back to Belize City from San Pedro about eight months ago. He returned home because his family received word that he was not doing too well on the island. His siblings promised to look after him here in Belize City and saw to it that he found a job and stayed out of trouble. Usher’s murder succeeds the shooting death of another close associate. Ezekiel Usher leaves behind two children. Police are yet to make an arrest in this most recent homicide. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
