Twenty-three year old shooting victim Joseph Duran claims that he is the target of revenge for a crime committed by his older brother 8 years ago. Duran claims that since 1994, when his brother beat up someone else's brother, he has been harassed, beaten up, sustained a broken jaw and now nearly killed over an incident he is alleging he had nothing to do with. On Saturday night, that campaign of cruelty escalated when three men rode up to Joseph Duran while he was talking to a female friend on Freedom Street. With no exchange of words, they opened fire on him hitting him five times- three in the back, one in the arm and one in the abdomen- and rode off leaving him for dead. But Duran somehow survived and from his hospital bed, he today gave us his account of this long-standing beef that nearly claimed his life:
Joseph Duran
Then Saturday night we gone 'bout twelve to ten or ten o'clock. I si dem di come like dey come from round Scorpion house and dey ride up towards we by this same young lady house, Martha, right in front a fi she house, di stand up me and she. When I si dem di come I noh run because I di do dat from '94... so now when I look I jus' si Scorpion jus' put up his hand like this and then...I tell a bust it, bust it and he fire 'bout five or six shot and three a dem hit me inna my back...cause I jus' turn round and three a dem hit me inna my back, two down ya so below my heart and one up ya. Da wah twenty-two or wah twenty-five one outta dat, cause he empty it, cause you hear dat plain when the bullet dey jus' snap, yu hear that plain. And all I do I just run down couple lamp post, 'bout five or four and when I conscious like I get shot I just continue walk the Boulevard and gone down to Fabers Road. I noh know how it wah end because from '94 I up and down da station... expect me rest in peace now, dey fractured my jaw '94 and from then, anytime I pass dem, dey jus' throw thing after me and like dey chase me, dey fight with me 'till now, si weh happen now, I jus' get shot up now.
While Duran is cooperating with police as they look for suspects, another young man who was shot this weekend has refused to cooperate. Leonard Meyers, known as "Ghost" was shot on Blues Street on Saturday afternoon at 2:30p.m. He was shot in the back, but refused to tell police who shot him. Police report that he refused treatment at the KHMH and Belize Medical Associates, and walked out of both facilities.