Calvin Palma is Murdered on Curl Thompson Street, Belize City

Calvin Palma

There was a murder recorded on Monday night in the Jane Usher Boulevard area of Belize City. That community has been relatively quiet, but around six-thirty p.m., gunshots echoed across the neighbourhood. Calvin Palma, who had just recently been staying in the area on Curl Thompson Street, was killed as he headed back home from a shop just two properties away. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

On Monday night, Calvin Palma was cut down in a hail of bullets on Curl Thompson Street in the Jane Usher Boulevard area of Belize City. The thirty-two-year-old resident of a Mud Street address left his home and went to a shop two houses down. On his way back, he would come face-to-face with a gunman who opened fire on him. Reports of gunfire broke the silence.

Voice of: Resident

“After six, about six thirty.”

Duane Moody

“What were you doing?”

Voice of: Resident

“Ina mi bed with mi kids.”

Duane Moody

“What happened thereafter?”

Voice of: Resident

“I noh know cause I just hear lone gunshots. See nothing. Only that I hear, lone gunshots.”

Duane Moody

“How many shots?”

Voice of: Resident

“I miscount cause first yo hear five and then afterwards, yo hear multiple shots afterwards. Ih just mi gone and buy dehn say. Me noh know. Me neva deh deh; me neva see so me can’t say. Lotta people come out because the bwai dah mi wah nice person, so everybody wah come out to assist. But when we look, ih mi done deh pan the ground dead.”

When the shooting subsided, residents emerged only to find Palma on the ground motionless. Police and scenes of crime personnel arrived shortly after to process the area. Palma’s family, including his mother, arrived about an hour later. One resident recounts the grief expressed by Palma’s mother.

Voice of: Resident

“As a ma, I know how she feel cause me got pikney too. And them deh shooting deh just left my kids and I know kids from ina di neighbourhood traumatized. Like madas, a lot of kids live round yah back ah Jane Usher. So I noh know what else to say. Ih really rough fi see he deh down deh and ih ma, yo know. Dehn pain deh hurt.”

Calvin Palma

Palma is no stranger to the law.  Our archives show that back in March 2009, at age nineteen, Palma was the victim of a drive-by shooting on Nurse Finley Crescent. Later that same year, he was charged for unlicensed firearm and ammunition; his name has also been called in a series of crimes. Residents say Palma had just recently moved to the area, but was not known to have problems.

Voice of: Resident

“I noh really know ahn like that, but I get fi know ahn and he was a nice person; a helpful person.”

Duane Moody

“He lived in this area?”

Voice of: Resident

“Mmhmm. I noh even want see the kids on the street. And back yah soh dah like peace – all of a sudden the thing just start up. Yo see dehn bwai clean up, dehn go clean yard, dehn go clean the street side. Anything yo ask dehn bwai do, dehn do for yo. So now yon oh even want yo children on the street di play, noh even fi go buy dah shop. It noh make no sense cause yon oh know who fi trust. Yo noh know nothing. Left yo lost.”

Duane Moody for News Five.