Another Belize City man gunned down in cold blood
Violence and Belize City have come to be synonymous words and that reputation was bolstered again this weekend as the old capital was the scene of yet another fatal shooting. And as News Five’s Marion Ali reports, the victim is no stranger to the harsh reality of our times.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Thirty-five year old Steven Arnold, also known as “Sour”, became the nation’s thirty-fourth murder victim for 2008 as he walked on Monroe Street early this morning. The barrage of gunshots in the quiet of the night startled residents out of their sleep.
Halima Flowers, Resident, Monroe Street
“When my bwai come from work, dat da lee bit before three. As he come he tek off ih clothes and gone lay dong. When he gone lay dong we hear di shots deh. When we hear the shots deh now I tell he babe somebody get shot. That dah dead, right. Soh he tell me babe that da shots? Soh I tell he yeah.”
Marion Ali
“How much shots yoh hear?”
Halima Flowers
“Bout five.”
The family believe Arnold had just finished socialising in the Yarborough area and was heading home on Zericote Street when he was gunned down.
Andrea O’Brien, Niece of Murder Victim
“We heard that he was leaving the club en route to his home.”
Marion Ali
“But what would he have been doing on Monroe Street, which is a diversion from the route he was taking?”
Andrea O’Brien
“Same thing we are trying to figure out, same thing. We have no, no idea. None”
Marion Ali
“He have any friends or relatives in that area?”
Andrea O’Brien
“I don’t know, I’m not sure.”
Marion Ali
“And while police investigate the motive of this latest killing and work towards making an arrest, family members are asking why anyone would want Arnold dead.”
Andrea O’Brien
“To this family all we can say is it’s a big unsolved mystery like many others. There are so many missing links so we cannot say anything. We don’t know. He’s dead now and to us all that is left is an unsolved mystery.”
But what is not so mysterious is Arnold’s knack for finding trouble. In a 2007 interview he claimed innocence to setting up a murder in which he was wounded.
Stephen Arnold, Deceased (Sept. 28th, 2007)
“No kinda involvement with this shooting yah, coulda never be no involvement yah. If I mi involved I neva even mi wah get deh kind ah shooting yah. They amount ah scar an bullet hole weh I got, I noh even mi wah think bout set that up an deh inna the vehicle with he when ih happen.”
Marion Ali
“You feel like the person who shot him now was the same person who shot him last year?”
Andrea O’Brien
“I don’t know. I don’t know. Although all the shooting happen he never one day say feel like my time is coming too. He never one day give no clues that he thought his life was going to end so tragically.”
Tragedy is also what Flowers and her family were trying to avoid when they were reluctant to leave their house after the shooting.
Halima Flowers
“Deh mi done shoot through fi we house pan Faber’s Road already. And wah lotta kids eena this house and fi any bullet shoot through yah, maybe ih could ketch one ah we.”
Up to news time, police had not yet made an arrest. Marion Ali, for News Five.
The previous shooting referred to took place on the evening of September twenty-sixth, 2007, on Dean Street near East Collet Canal. In that fatal incident Arnold was sitting inside a car along with Ian Reid, who was shot to death. Arnold suffered a bullet wound which penetrated his abdomen. Police on October seventh, 2007 arrested Aaron Bailey and charged him with Reid’s murder. Bailey remains remanded at Hattieville Prison awaiting trial.
