On Friday night 25-year-old Marlon Fisher was shot for the second time in three weeks. The first time he was shot, he made an amazing recovery and he was out of the hospital within two weeks after a portion of one of his lungs was removed. Fisher was shot again on Friday night and now for the second time he's pulled through hours of surgery and is recovering. Tonight he tells us that he's done wrong in his life and he's trying to reform, but it's not an easy road.
Alfonso NobleReporting,
25-year-old Marlon Fisher is very well underway to recovery considering that just two days ago he was at the KHMH's Intensive Care Unit after being shot for the second time in three weeks. Speaking to us today, Fisher says that he does not know exactly why 2 attempts have been made on his life but he is certain that it's his past that has much to do with it.
Marlon Fisher,
"I came down from Belmopan for an appointment with a doctor Friday morning and as I came down there was gunshot again you know. It looks like a group of people are trying to kill me but I don't know for what. Rumors are saying that in the first attempt, the person who shot me in my chest, I was trying to kill his brother in jail but that is a lie, you know. The second time they probably tried to finish they job from the first time but I know in my heart, and God knows, that I didn't do them any wrong so don't care how many times they try to kill me, God won't let them kill me; I didn't do any wrong for them to kill me. From jail I have been trying to change my life. I am in a prayer and a counseling group."
The man leading Fisher in that direction is Fr. John Stochl. He says he met Fisher in the isolation section of the Hattieville Prison and since the encounter, he's been trying to guide the young man and others through a perilous path.
Fr. John Stochl,
"Its kind of a support group of people who want to change their lives and I am not sure what I am doing but they, I think, they want to change and I am just helping them and giving them a lot of support. I guess all I can do is
tell him to stay away from his old companions, his old associations, his old areas, and try to start a new life. He really wants to do that; he really wants to start new. He's changed a lot in the two years that I've known him and I am afraid society, or his former companions, aren't giving him much of a chance to change. He wants to do something positive with himself and other people."
Fisher has taken to the sessions well, but like the series of tattoos on his arm walking away from his past life is proving more difficult that trying to remove the tattoos that catalogue this young man's life. But he maintains his desperate struggle, one he sees as the eternal fight of good versus evil.
Marlon Fisher,
"I have no idea why they are trying to kill me but it is not me who will deal with them, God will deal with them. I don't feel like its punishment, I feel like because the wages of sin are death and once God gives you a second chance in life and he cleanse your sins, nothing from in the past can come back come haunt you. But the more you try change your life and stay away from bad and thing, the more Satan like try call you back on the side, from God's side. I don't need to do anything cause God will deal with them because I am trying to change my life but the more you try to change your life like more temptation come same way; the devil is busy too. I really fear for my life because you have to dead anyway you take it right because I avoid problems and try change your life but I could live the same kind of way they are living because to do badness is the easiest thing to do but to do good is hard. Me, all I will do is pray for myself and pray for them too because its me who will deal with them, God will deal with them. Same way too I can't stop my friends who are out there to go back and do them something same way because if my friends want to do something it will be on their own behalf but I won't tell them to do anything for me."
But while Fisher cannot change other people's actions he does say he is ready to make peace.
Marlon Fisher,
"I ready to resolve. I am ready to sign any peace treaty anytime but it is not my responsibility to do that, it is up to them who are trying to kill me because I never yet tried to kill them."
Fr. John Stochl,
"I hope that he can find safety and security and do something positive for himself and for other people."
Marlon Fisher,
"I managed to survive because God is with me because once you deal with violence and wickedness, which they are dealing with, then you are on Satan's side and in the end good will always conquer evil."
Fisher says that as soon as he is well enough he will return to a village where he has sought refuge from the fast and dangerous life of Belize City.
