For the past day, there’s been an escalating war between rival crews from Wagner’s Lane and Berkeley Street, east of Wesley Church in downtown Belize City. Any gang war is sure to have residents of the affected communities living in a state of suspended terror, but when those warring crews are from two adjoining streets, it’s more than an amber alert, it’s a red zone neighborhood. And that’s just what’s happening between Wagner’s and Berkley. The streets are perpendicular to each other and in the past 30 hours, the rival sets have been shooting at each other regularly- so much so that the wonder is how no one has been hurt. Police recovered 33 shells between yesterday afternoon and this morning. Indeed, for residents of this community, right now it’s a matter of time, chance and inches between life and death.
The Major Crimes Unit has been deployed as has the Conscious Youth Development Programme. Superintendent Edward Broaster of CYDP told us what his group’s efforts have been like.
Supt. Edward Broaster, CYDP Director
“We were made aware of the shooting incident on Saturday which started out between two individuals and has stemmed to drag two groups into the conflict. But we’ve been tracing the conflict since Saturday and our trace team
is working vigorously to resolve this conflict. I want to assure residents of these areas that we are confident that by tomorrow we will be able to resolve the conflict completely.
There was a misunderstanding back in the prison between two individuals and it got spilled out from the prison to the street and we are on top of it and we will be working vigorously to resolve it and I am confident by tomorrow we will be able to resolve this conflict.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
We understand that just over 30 shells so far have been recovered. It is amazing that no one has yet received any injuries from these shootings.
Supt. Edward Broaster,
“Well I am not aware of how many shells the police have recovered from the scene but I just want to assure the public in these areas that we are on it and we will resolve it by tomorrow. As a matter of fact I know that a complaint was lodged today by one of the individuals who was shot at as well so we’re confident that we’ll be resolving this conflict by tomorrow.”
The last shooting reported took place this morning around 9:30. No arrests have been made. Broaster advises any parent whose child is involved in any street rivalry to call his office for mediation.
