Belize was a city under siege from firepower last night as successive drive by shootings swept the southside. The first shot was fired shortly after 6 pm at the corner of Dean and Plues Street where 21-year-old Adulphus Smith was shot in his face. Three hours and many bullets later a 13 year old in the Lake Independence Area was shot while inside his home. But he wasn't the target; his neighbor one street back was. It's a most unfortunate case of collateral damage in ongoing street warfare. Keith Swift picks up the story.
Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
Last night's terror began here at 4468 Lavender Street. This morning Deborah Sutherland showed me the more than half a dozen bullet holes which now dot her cement bungalow house. Her house came under hostile fire last night. The 7NEWS was on the scene shortly after and witnesses told us that a car drove up and opened fire on Sutherland's Lavender Street home. She was inside with her father and brother.
Deborah Sutherland, House Shot
"I was inside and I heard the bullets busting up and thing and then my neighbor from upstairs told me, 'Debbie yuh house.' I heard like ten shots
fire on my house. So then I got frightened and my father and my rest of family were in there so I just made my father go into his room and then afterwards when I heard the bullets slowed down I came out because I know my mother had just left. Then I heard somebody bawling hard like they were in pain."
Those cries weren't coming from next door, in fact they were coming from the next street at this house, the Haulze's street home of Barbara Foster. She along with her son and two grandkids were inside when the gunmen opened fire. It was a spray of bullets and one of them pierced her screen door and hit her 13-year-old son Sherwin. He is now in the hospital recovering but this morning the blood remained on his mother's tennis shoe and so too were the numerous bullet holes which now cover the walls of the wooden structure, in the bedroom, living room, and of course the front door.
Barbara Foster, Son Shot
"It happened so fast I really don't even know. I was laying down on
the bed, Sherwin behind me, my grandson beside me, and we heard the shots from Lavender Street first and then when they came on this street I don't know what happened next. Due to my pressure and sugar, I heard the shots and I got frightened but I thought it was on the back street, not knowing that they were coming around. I didn't know."
Keith Swift,
Where was your son when he was hit?
Barbara Foster,
"Right here by the door because he was beside me but then when he heard the shots, he said he was going to his bed and by the time he jumped up, he said, 'ma ma,' and I wasn't paying him any mind but at that time he was already hit. The blood was just gushing out. I thought he was playing all the while but when I looked I saw the blood."
The logic is that the gunmen's real target was 4468 Lavender Street, Sutherland's home. She says she sees no reason why.
Deborah Sutherland,
"I just want to tell them they better try hold it down because like how you said the police said this has something to do with my boyfriend but my boyfriend isn't really into giving trouble and anything like that again. He is a changed person."
And while in time Deborah will able to patch the bullet holes on her house, it won't be so easy for Barbara Foster. This mother came close to losing her youngest son and actually lost her sense of security within the four walls she calls home.
Barbara Foster,
"Keith it's not safe. It looks like in your own home you are not safe because everybody was right in here. He was lying right next to me on the bed. I am not angry you know because its something happening everyday and you don't know what to expect now so I can't really be angry and thing like that because we really didn't know this would have caught us."
The official police count is four bullets on Sutherland's house and six in the home of Barbara Foster. We also know that car used in the earlier Plues Street shooting was found abandoned on the same Lavender Street. It was a Toyota Camry and was riddled with bullets. The victim is 21-year-old Adolphus Smith and he is in a critical but stable condition at the KHMH. He was shot at 6 times, and one bullet grazed his nose, while another went into his midsection.
