1 week after incarceration, murdered in friend’s yard

Kevin Gentle

Here in Belize City, early on Saturday night, a thirty-two year old man was shot multiple times as he socialized with an acquaintance near his house on Curl Thompson Street. Police believe Kevin Gentle may have been at the wrong place but what we can confirm is that just last week he was in court facing drug trafficking charges for a small quantity of cannabis. News Five’s Jose Sanchez reports on the City’s latest homicide.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

The blood soaked dirt in this quiet and overgrown and unnamed area is the only evidence that a brutal shoot-out occurred. Kevin Gentle lived in the first of three small wooden homes on a dead end road that borrowed the name of Curl Thompson Street, several blocks away. He went to socialize at the third building, the home of Arden Alex Robinson, but while one man was taken on a stretcher, the other left in a body bag. The Police Press Officer explained how Gentle was killed.

Raphael Martine

Raphael Martinez, Police Press Officer

“On Saturday, seventeenth November 2012, at approximately seven p.m., police visited the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where they saw thirty-two year old Kevin Alvin Gentle of a Curl Thompson Street in Belize City lying motionless with apparent multiple gunshot wounds to the body. Initial investigations reveal that Gentle was socializing along with Arden Alex Robinson at Robinson’s yard when an unknown male person arrived and fired several shots at both persons causing the fatal injuries to Gentle and injuring Robinson. Both men were transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where Kevin Gentle was pronounced dead at seven-fifteen p.m. and Robinson admitted in a stable condition. Police have since retrieved one slug and a grey warm cap from the scene and are looking for a Belize City Man for questioning.”

Arden Alex Robinson

It may or may not have been coincidence, but these pictures of the men were taken only a week ago at the municipal court in Belize City. On November thirteenth, Gentle, Robinson and Michael Goff were charged with drug trafficking of seventy-eight grams of marijuana that were found in Robinson’s yard, three days earlier on Sunday morning.

Raphael Martinez

“Having spoken with some of the police officers, it seems as if though it was a case of mistaken identity but it’s  a bit early in the investigation to determine whether that is really true. But that is what, so far at this very early stage it’s pointing to.”

Could mistaken identity be the cause of murder at the last house on an unnamed, dead end street? Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.