And while those shootings all occurred in one very small area, just a few blocks over on the canal side, last night, a 21 year old young man was gunned down in front of his home in Belize City. The victim is Sydney Bradley who was standing in front of his West Canal home just before 10 pm when a gunman on a bicycle pulled out a pistol and opened fire. Bradley's family says he was targeted and in their grief they have found anger for the police who they say mishandled their brother in his deathly final moments.
Keith Swift Reporting, Email - [keithkswift@gmail.com]
21-year-old Sydney Bradley was executed with a bullet to the chest last night as he stood in front of his home here at no. 165 West Canal last night. His sister Delma told me that a shooter stood about 100 feet away on the Berkeley Street Bridge and fired twice - one of the shots hit Sydney in the chest. Though wounded - Sydney ran through the alley and found refuge in a neighbor's yard. His sister Delma was in her bed when she heard three gunshots.
Delma Bradley, Sister
"I was in my bed when I heard the gunshots and when I came out on the verandah they told me that it was my brother who was shot. When I looked over the verandah I didn't see him but somebody told me that he was in somebody's house back there bleeding because he was shot in his chest. After a while I called 911 and the lady on the phone told me she was dispatching a mobile to come pick him up. So a police car came with Mr. Jeffries and when time the car came my brother left from the back there and walked through the alley and went into the vehicle."
Sydney was taken to the hospital where he died two hours later from that bullet wound to the chest. Through her grief Delma says she is upset about the way police treated her wounded brother who was alive when the police mobile arrived. Delma said she called for an ambulance.
Delma Bradley,
"I called for an ambulance but the lady said they are dispatching a mobile. When it got here and he got into the vehicle Jeffries asked him what is his problem. So he told Jeffries that he got shot and Jeffries told him to get into the vehicle. When he got into the vehicle Jeffries asked him where did you get shot, so he told Jeffries it was in his chest. So he was trying to move his foot to get into the vehicle and Jeffries almost slammed the door on his foot. So anyway everybody who was out here saw what was happening and they finally took him to the hospital."
Keith Swift,
Delma why are you upset?
Delma Bradley,
"Because of how I saw a senior officer operate. I don't like it and I really feel offended because regardless of what anybody did they are still a human being and they don't deserve to get treated like that."
You can appreciate how hard her brother's death is on Delma when you consider that only nine months earlier her boyfriend - Kenrick 'Garobo' Johnson - was murdered at the very same spot as her brother was last night. Today Delma says she doesn't know whom or why they killed her brother but she does want justice.
Delma Bradley,
"I think they were targeting him because from the mere fact that this person came around here two days in a row firing shots after his friend down Rocky Road and it never did catch him. The person came back the night, bought two ideals at the Chinese grocery shop plus send a sprang head from through Jump Street to come check by the bridge and when the sprang head went down the lane, the person came out and fire shot right after he."
"He was a loving person, I am talking on my behalf, he was a loving brother and he didn't ask to die this kind of way. I am not happy about it all. I don't know when there will be justice in Belize. There is no justice in Belize. The man just come and bust up shots around here and the pickney from through the alley had just gone to carry out their dirt last night and they were still outside when the shots started. That is total nonsense."
Bradley's body awaits a post mortem. He had just returned from the United States. The murder of Delma Bradley's boyfriend Kenrick Johnson 9 months ago is still unsolved.
