Three Persons Are Shot on Handyside Street
Three persons, including a woman, who were standing on Handyside Street on Sunday night, were injured when a pair of gunmen on motorcycle opened fire on them. Carmen Canelo and her common-law husband Michael Usher were along with Steven Hope when they came under attack. While Canelo and Hope remain hospitalized at the K.H.M.H., Usher, who was grazed by a bullet, is not cooperating with investigators. According to Assistant Superintendent Fitzroy Yearwood, the shooting incident may be the result of an ongoing rivalry between various groups in that area.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, Belize Police Department
“We know that Steven Hope, Carmen Canelo and Michael Usher were standing on Handyside Street when two men entered on the side street from Gabourel Lane and opened fire in the direction of the trio. We know that Hope and Carmen Canelo were admitted in stable condition, but Michael Usher refused to get any medical treatment for his graze that he received during this incident. We know that the motorcycle riders then made good their escape into Daly Street and the police are still looking to try to identify these persons that we know are responsible for the orchestration of this crime.”
Duane Moody
“Sir, you said just now that the conditions of all three victims, well at least the two that are hospitalized, they’re stable? One of them is critical?”
Fitzroy Yearwood
“No.”
Duane Moody
“Any idea as to what motivated this shooting?”
Fitzroy Yearwood
“Honestly, we do not know. We know that there is an ongoing rivalry between people of that neighborhood where the shooting occurred and another nearby group and we know that the mediation unit will be addressing that situation today, hopefully for us to establish what spiked this to occur.”
Duane Moody
“Is it possible that Mr. Usher was the intended target?”
Fitzroy Yearwood
“I wouldn’t want to do that, to identify the intended target. It’s neither here nor there because he is not cooperating with us.”
