Ghost Town Fracture Leads to Bloodbath
Percival Pilgrim
Twenty-four-year-old Percival Pilgrim expired around two-thirty this morning from injuries he received during a shooting incident on Banak Street several hours earlier. The incident was a catalyst that sparked a reprisal on Vernon Street on Wednesday night that left two persons dead. It’s all part of a beef that has been brewing in the Mayflower Street neighbourhood since mid-last year. Police believe it all came to a head when Kanye King and Percival Pilgrim were waylaid by their rivals. Isani Cayetano begins our coverage of Wednesday’s carnage.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
A fatal shooting incident on Wednesday afternoon may have been the tipping point in an ongoing feud that has been tearing a Belize City neighborhood apart over the past few months. Shortly after two o’clock, a pair of young men came under gunfire as they proceeded on foot along Banak Street. Twenty-four-year-old Percival Pilgrim was in the company of Kanye King, a teenage minor, when they were blindsided by three individuals who emerged from a nearby alley. Multiple shots were fired in their direction.
Sandra Uter
Sandra Uter, Grandmother of Shooting Victim
“I finish cook, my grandkids dehn, my two granddaughter cause dehn stay downstairs fi di time being and my grandson Kanye, cohn and dehn eat dehn food. When Kanye done eat ih gaan through, up Mayflower Street fi gaan pan Vernon Street. I noh know weh ih gaan, i gaan eena my bed and I gaan lay down.”
Moments later, Sandra Uter was roused out of a catnap by her granddaughter.
Sandra Uter
“I get up. Ih seh, “You yer dehn deh?” Ah seh no because ah mussi mi drop eena wahn lee doze. Ah seh no, and dehn run through di back. I still noh gaan out deh. When dehn cohn tell me dehn shot Pilgrim.”
Evelyn Franklin
Unbeknownst to the family matriarch, her sixteen-year-old grandson had been injured in the deadly fusillade. What she also did not know was that another grandson was reportedly the triggerman. Percival Pilgrim was struck multiple times, including a gunshot wound to the head.
Evelyn Franklin, Aunt of Deceased
“I was here trying to prepare a little barbecue for my birthday when I heard the news that PJ just got shot, right. But by the time I reached there, the police had already taken him to the hospital.”
Despite being rushed to the K.H.M.H., Pilgrim would not survive the deadly encounter. The incident is the latest attack in an internal row that has divided the Ghost Town community. A bitter rivalry between factions of the namesake gang is pitting Uter’s grandchildren against each other with lethal consequences.
Isani Cayetano
“Ms. Sandra, your family is fractured; it is split based on what seems to be an ongoing gang situation in the Mayflower Street area. As a grandparent, talk to us about what is happening and perhaps what you’ve tried to do to bring peace amongst your grandkids.”
Sandra Uter
“I stay talk to my grandkids dehn. Dehn wahn ease down but yoh have people weh cohn cohn molest dehn. I have one ah my nephew weh one ah my grandson end up di shoot, he deh da jail right now for it because why? Dehn gaan after he, three ah dehn gaan after he with gun.”
It’s a vicious cycle, one that has these young men preying on each other as the power struggle between the Banak Zone Gang and Mayflower Street goes unchecked.
Isani Cayetano
“This beef between the two sides of Mayflower Street, or Ghost Town as we call it, has been going on for months and there are prominent names involved in what is going on here. What is your take on it?”
Sandra Uter
“Well yoh got some ah mi family members weh dehn feel like, at least to me, ih look like dehn wahn be hero eena all dis, yoh undastand mih. Dehn wahn got people like robot and di bring een people from all, me noh know weh. Di young man cohn front deh and my nephew mi di pass. My grandson stand up frontah di shop, Kanye, ih tell di young man, ih seh, “Dis da di one ah wahn yoh kill. He dah Kanye. Dis da di one ah wahn yoh kill.”
Evelyn Franklin’s nephew, described as easygoing and sociable, is said to have been an affiliate of Banak Zone, much like Kanye King.
Evelyn Franklin
“Friendly and sociable. He noh really heng out, noh as what I know, yoh know, but he’s always on the go.”
Isani Cayetano
“Why would you think, then, that someone would attack him this kind of way?”
Evelyn Franklin
“I just don’t know.”
This morning shortly before five o’clock, a drove of police officers descended on Uter’s Mayflower Street address. Her front door was kicked in and the bedrooms were ransacked.
Sandra Uter
“I was in my bed. I had already awoken, but I was in my bed because my grandson haffi goh da work fi five o’clock. He get ready fi bathe, put on ih clothes and by the time ih gwein een back fi get ih belt fi put on, we yer di door stomp een. Well I get up and I staat to rail up and I staat to cuss, ah seh because if unu ask, ah wahn open di door. But unu cohn like —- soh unu cyant expect betta from me. Dat da weh I tell dehn.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
