11 year old girl shot in drive-by
It was a story right out of South Central. Gang bangers do a drive by and an innocent bystander goes down in a pool of blood. Only this wasn’t Los Angeles…in fact it wasn’t even the bullet ridden Belize City of 5 years ago. It was this morning on Mopan Street…and it wasn’t the first tragedy to hit the Williams family.
Four years ago, eleven year old Stacy Williams accidentally fell off her family’s verandah and received serious head injuries which left her mentally retarded. But despite her handicap, young Williams remained happy and a friendly part of her Mopan Street neighborhood.
Jennifer Domingo, Former Teacher, Stella Maris School
“She was very nice and pleasant and remember to tell you good morning teacher and please let me go to the bathroom and things like that child.”
Today however, the course of Williams’ life was once again abruptly altered. While playing downstairs in her yard she took a bullet meant for someone else.
Mary Williams, Grandmother
“For change her clothes, for comb her hair, everything. Can’t do anything for herself, only eat and they still shot her just like that there.”
Mary Williams, the grandmother who has been looking after Stacy since she was a baby, says she had just left her granddaughter’s side to go and use the bathroom.
Mary Williams
“I just see her drop on the ground. I just left her and run upstairs cause I wanted to use the bathroom. So I left her in the yard with a young man and tell him just watch her for me and see that she doesn’t move, cause she is kind of retarded. So I just holler that he watch her for me and see that she doesn’t move from the bench where I left her and I say to Stacy, I going upstairs and come right back, and she say a-ha.”
But while Granny Williams was making her way up the steps, a few yards away, a neighbor who was sitting on a fence across the street noticed three young men riding up Mopan Street. The eyewitness, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us that the men were shouting at one Lucios Myers. Myers, a former member of the now defunct P.I.V. gang, was standing in the yard next door to the Williams home.
Eyewitness
“When I get up for peep I see one, the one that they were quarreling with in the yard the throw hand and thing to, and when they gone, I see they turn back and when they turn back, one of them pull out a gun out of his pocket and fired a shot. When he fired the shot, I see the boy duck, so I say he must get shot. But when I notice, he come out on the street and like open his hands and tell the boy come back. The boy look like he would shot again and he never shot. When I notice, I see the man come and pick the little girl, and the little girl hand drop, and then I notice the little girl got shot.”
The first one to rush to Williams’ side was her grandfather, Dalton Hoare. Hoare had just made his way into the Williams’ kitchen when he heard a shot ring out.
Dalton Hoare, Grandfather
“When I look through the door, I see Stacy in a motion to fall down. She did fall down on her left side. I rushed to her, take my right hand, lift up her head and take my left hand to stop the blood which was pouring very fast from through her head side.”
Hoare said at the same time, a vehicle was passing by. The driver stopped and helped him put Williams inside. They then rushed her, already unconscious, to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. There she immediately received an emergency operation.
Margaret Williams, Aunt
“Well presently she is just coming to. When I went in there, she was just reviving, you know moving. She is attached to the drip and the whole of her face from here is swollen, up to this way, you know. She has a small cut here where the bullet went in with some few stitches. But the doctor say fortunately the bullet never gone up, so it won’t lodge in the brain and cause more brain damage, cause she is retarded … it went this way. They are not sure what will happen, they can’t give any guarantees. They don’t really know.”
Williams has now regained consciousness and is said to be in a critical, but stable condition. While neighbors are confused as to how Williams ended up getting the bullet that was intended for Myers, who was a good distance away, according to the police the shot was fired from at least two hundred yards away. That would make anyone in the area a potential victim. At this time Head of C.I.B. Simeon Alvarez says they do not know if the incident is gang related and are investigating the matter from all angles.
ASP Simeon Alvarez, Head of CIB
“Well at this time, the police is looking into that situation to see if there was a long standing dispute, but at this time we can’t say if there was.”
Quickly following the incident police had in custody cousins Mark and Stuart Sutherland. Early this afternoon in the company of his attorney, Kirk Anderson, the alleged triggerman, identified as one Norris “Cologne” Leslie turned himself in to the police. Alvarez says more than likely the trio will be charged for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
According to police, Leslie is associated with the group called the Ghost Town Crips. The gun used in the crime, believed to be a 32 caliber revolver, has not yet been recovered.
