A bloody weekend witnessed three murders across the country. Two of them were in Belize City where, in unrelated shootings, gun violence claimed two lives, both in the Lake Independence area.
We begin with 20-year-old Jason Hill who was chased down and shot at least six times on Friday night. Hill was riding his bicycle on Sarstoon Street when he was met by a men who chased him down and killed him in the street. Here's the story.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
The trail of blood in the yard of this housing complex on Ebony Street mark the last paces that 20-year-old Jason Hill took before he finally collapsed and died at the rear of the building. Elsworth Augustine says he was in the yard listening to some music when he heard gunshots ring out on Sarstoon Street and he saw the 20 year old running for his life.
Elsworth Augustine,
"All I heard was three shots, those crazy way, and I jumped up and I broke away through so. At that time I had a knife on me and I ran and went to see if it was one of my people they were shooting because this is my neighborhood. Same way, boom, when I reached I didn't even have more time to run and go interfere, I had to turn back, because I saw this person trying to run and I saw him dropping and thing and I tried to make out his face but he just ran past me. At that time I was hiding in the corner and later on I saw the shadow of a male person in the corner stretching his hand that kind of way and same way I heard like two more shot lick again. At that time I saw the boy dropping again and I figured that the guy had gotten shot so I ran behind him and told him to stop and hold it down my boy, you straight. I was running behind him and when I reached behind there I didn't see where the man went. When I was looking for the man I saw him in a corner in the area back there and I hauled up on him and I asked him if he had gotten shot. I saw him leaning up and I lift up the man face and then I conscious the man is right off Vernon Street and thing you know so I was looking to back the man and take him for help but I realized the man was heavy so I just put a shirt over the man head and bust off his chain before somebody robbed him. He then ended up getting assistance and thing."
Hill received as many as six gunshots and by the time neighbors managed to take him to the hospital he had already died. One young woman who was also at home at the time of the shooting, and who wished not to be identified, says that while Hill died, she too could have been a victim during the pursuit.
"When I peeped through the door I saw two persons going through the bushes I closed the door, and before I could close the door, all I could feel was a little sprinkling on me from one of the bullets that entered my house."
One bullet ripped through the front door and through one of the apartment's walls and finally it ended up on the concrete wall. Seeing this today, this young woman says she thanks God, she was not closer to the path of the bullet.
"All I could say is thank the Lord because I could have ended up the same way he did and I am very glad I didn't. It was very much a surprise because its somebody I know and I guess just the wrong company got him caught up."
Elsworth Augustine,
"I noh really di trip because you know dah natural life, those things happen nearly everyday nowadays with the way things are happening."
That's the realization that many city residents have come to the conclusion of and Friday night proved that realization true.
Augustine told us that he visited the police station to give a statement of what he had witnessed and while there he was detained from Friday night until Sunday morning for no apparent reason. Meanwhile police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a male person whom they believe is responsible for the killing.
