Just after ten last night, a single gunshot broke the silence in the neighbourhood of Plues and Prince Streets. A young man from the Mesopotamia Division was killed…..and from all indications it was a targeted attack, because of a previous homicide in which the victim just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jacqueline Godwin reports.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
When 7News arrived on the crime scene at the corner of Plues and Prince Streets the area was dimly lit but the body of thirty year old Gilbert Olivera Hamilton Jr. could still be seen lying faced up on the ground. The only persons present at the location were a handful of spectators, a forensic team and police investigators. The body was lifted, placed on a stretcher and then put in the back of a police pickup truck and transported to the Belize City morgue.
It is not certain if the police discovered any evidence at the crime scene but it appears as if Gilbert Olivera Hamilton Jr. was killed by a single bullet that police believe came from a shot gun. The body had several pellet wounds to the back. People in the area recall hearing only one gunshot just after ten on Wednesday night.
The victim’s family says their son and nephew was walking his usual route home when he was shot from behind. Today they recall the haunting words their loved one told them that they believe is the reason why he was killed. The family says in June, Gilbert Olivera Jr. was scheduled to appear in court as a main witness in a murder case.
Sharon Olivera, Aunt of Murder Victim
“Every time I come down here he always tells me about it. He said he won’t go to court.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Because he was scared that somebody would kill him?
Sharon Olivera,
“Yes because the talking, the rumours were around that they will kill
him. Rumours were around that they would kill him because he was the only one who witnessed and see what happened.”
Gilbert Maurice Hamilton Sr., Father of Murder Victim
“I get to understand that he saw someone got shot and then he was going to be a witness and then that is why they killed him. From the back they shot him.”
Idolly Welch, Grandmother of Murder Victim
“I know the hours he got is the hours he usually comes home because he goes by his brother’s house. He had just left his brother’s house.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
So you believe he was heading home?
Idolly Welch,
“Yes he was heading home because right by Plues Street he got it.”
In fact the family say they heard the single gunshot but never thought it would be one of their own killed.
Gilbert Maurice Hamilton Sr.,
“I know Belize turned a bad place, I know. Everyday it is one thing over and over and that will go right so, nobody will know who it is.”
Today Idolly Welch appealed to anyone with information to help solve the murder of her grandson.
Idolly Welch,
“Whosever see this crime just please step up and report it to the police station.”
Sharon Olivera,
“Mek ih just hand in ihself before somebody has to get dead again because I don’t see the sense of why they have to do it because he is a sickly person, he travels with fits. Sometimes three times for the day he drops down with fits and we didn’t even know what caused it because it is not something he was born with. Sudden one he picked up that fit so thought that would have killed him. We didn’t know he would have gotten shot, that they finally got to him.”
One person has been detained and questioned by police but he is not believed to be a strong suspect in the case.
