Keith Courtenay Junior is Shot Dead in His Yard!

Keith Courtenay Jr.

A father of two was killed in Belize City on Monday night. Keith Courtenay Junior was in his yard when the assailants attacked him. He tried to escape from his killers but he couldn’t get away from their bullets.  The family reports that they heard the shots ring out in their neighborhood but they didn’t know that the bullets claimed their loved one’s life.  It’s a tragedy that has left the family reeling – considering that Courtenay’s father was killed in the same way just nine months ago.  Today, News Five visited the family to try to find out why another member was struck down by bullets.  Here’s the story.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Twenty-six-year-old Keith Courtenay Junior was murdered just before nine o’clock on Monday night. He was standing at this yard on Ebony Street when he was gunned down – this is a house where he has been living for the past six months.  His grandmother Lorrain Courtenay lives a stone’s throw away – she was in her bed when she heard the shots ring out last night. This morning, she found out the target of those bullets was her grandson Keith Courtenay Junior.

Lorraine Courtenay, Grandmother of Deceased

“Mi daughta weh live deh, dah she tell me this morning. She say dah ‘Chichi’ dead yuh know – and I say no man. And she say well dah he deh shot. I said well I know I hear bout six bullets but as long as dah gun, I nuh wah get up because dah me one mi deh ya.”

Courtenay and another man were reportedly on the verandah when two persons stormed inside the yard and firedseveral shots. Courtney and the other man ran awayfrom the killers but it was too late – he had been fatally injured anddied on the way to the hospital. According to his sister-in-law, Niricie Castro, she was communicating with him about an hour before he was killed. She describes him as a nice and quiet young man.

Niricie Castro

Voice of: Niricie Castro, Sister-in-law of Deceased

“He dah mi wah outgoing person, sweet, like laugh and clown himself. When we get together everybody – he give you advice. He is always there for everybody and he loved his two daughters. Everything fi he dah fi he daughters. The night before we mi the talk and he tell me that he wah build something for his daughters deh and he wah just change his life and live life for his two daughters and not knowing last night would be the last night I hear from Keith.”

Andrea Polanco

“Do you know why someone would want to kill Keith in this way?”

Voice of: Niricie Castro

“To be honest mami, no. He nuh trouble people. He quiet and he hardly have friends. He dah mostly fi family. Suh I nuh know why they would want to cut his life short.”

While Castro doesn’t know what put a target on Courtney’sback, his grandmother says while she can’t pinpoint what led to his brutal murder, she knows that he had disassociated himself from a gang and ever since then he became a marked man to the gang to which he once belonged.

Lorraine Courtenay

Lorraine Courtenay

“According to them, he mi come yah come buy his lee herbs you know and then gwein back and deh say the car mi deh out deh and one wah bwai come outta the car and begin to shoot.”

Andrea Polanco

“Suh yuh think deh mi di wait fi Keith out deh, deh mi know?”

Lorraine Courtenay

“Yes, deh mi the wait pahn ah because deh mi dehafta ah long time.”

Andrea Polanco

“Weh mek yuh think deh mi deh afta ah long time?”

Keith Courtenay Jr.

Lorraine Courtenay

“Because he mi deh inna wah gang but you know he stopped since his gial had wah baby and he decided to stop and run straight but like deh nuh tek it suh. Deh still want him in the gang.”

Andrea Polanco

“So, although he left the gang he still get caught up inna that?”

Lorraine Courtenay

“Yes, he couldn’t walk go nowhere because anytime he go anywhere dehfaas with ah. He couldn’t even go dah his ma house because if he deh yah and I tell ah go dah yuh ma go get something fi me, he say, “granny, I cyaa go. I nuh go round deh.”

It’s a tragedy for the Courtney family – that started earlier this year when Keith Courtney Senior was shot and killed on the same property where his mother lives on Ebony Street in Belize City back in March. Courtenay Senior died while shielding his grandson from bullets that a trigger-happy gunman fired onto the property.  Lorraine Courtney says that she doesn’t believe her grandson’s killing is connected to his father’s but the pain and sorrowfeel just the same for the matriarch of the family as that she experienced nine months when she lost her son.

Keith Courtenay Jr.

Lorraine Courtenay

“Dah nuh nothing nice I the tell yuh. I sit down quiet because I nuh want mi pressure go up because if mi pressure go up I might be the third Courtney go.”

Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.