And even as discord and civil unrest simmers, what police say is a violent gang war in Belize City continues to escalate in the city. A 23 year old was today shot in the head and killed at the corner of Tanoomah Street and Kut Avenue. At around 12 this afternoon 23 year old Jermaine Barrow was at this corner when a gunman rode up on him and fired a single gunshot from a nine millimeter pistol to Barrow's head killing him instantly. I was on the scene shortly after and here's the story.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
The body of 23-year-old Jermaine Barrow lay strewn on the street at the corner of Tanoomah and cut avenue in the midday sun. The spectators could hardly be contained as they surrounded the body to try to get a glimpse of the young man. One woman who was in the crowd but wished to not appear on camera says that Barrow had just left her home seconds before he was shot.
Witness,
"One shot, just one shot I heard and I thought it was a firecracker, just one shot and it really shake me up. This young man was in my yard talking to my daughter, right Madison, he was talking to she and like seconds, I mi deh upstairs in my room, and as he left out of this gate and the seconds it took to walk across and go into the yard across the street they shot him in his head. He always comes in my yard and the second as he left that is when they shot him. We just heard the gunshot and my kids they just told me he got shot. They just told me my friend got shot and when I looked out it was him and he had just left out of my yard, seconds after leaving out of my yard they shot him. It surprised me because he is always in my yard, I mean to say it could have been one of my kids who got shot. He always is in my yard, he is friend and it really surprise me to know that seconds after he left he got shot."
Her surprise was very much like those who looked on as the police carried the body away leaving only a pool of blood to recount what happened on this Friday afternoon at the corner of Tanoomah and Kut Avenue in Belize City.
Police say they have detained one person in connection with this latest shooting death and expect to charge him shortly.
