There were two shootings in Belize City last night. We start with the second one which was a ruthless home invasion in the Lake Independence area. It left a 16 year old recovering from a gunshot wound to his right leg. It happened at 9:40 last night on Police Street – as I found out, two men barged into the yard, one was masked, the other had a gun on the ready.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
This is the bullet hole we found in the refrigerator. It was left there by a nine milimeter pistol fired inside the home of Pedrina Johnson. The bullet exited the appliance and struck the teenager in his right leg. That is why this mother believes her son sixteen year old Frank Trapp better known as Frankie is lucky to be alive.
Pedrina Johnson, Mother of Shooting Victim
“The bullet chipped his bone.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Will he be able to walk?
Pedrina Johnson,
“Well I haven’t made contact with the doctor as yet. I was waiting on the doctor and I didn’t see him, the doctor noh reach yet.”
The teenaged victim who remains hospitalized at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital was shot by one of two young men who held up the mother and son sometime after nine on Thursday night. Pedrina says she was speaking with Frank as he stood in the back yard lighting this fire hearth when a gun was pointed at his head.
Pedrina Johnson,
“Last night my gas finished so I tell my son Frankie, only me and him were home, so I told him to go and fry the thing on the fire hearth because they don’t like to eat bread so he said he will light the fire hearth and then I can cook it. So I stand up by the window and Frankie was frying the fry cake and he asked me to please lend me the pot with the beans and chicken so I can warm everything before I come inside. So while I was talking to Frankie by the window I saw like somebody peeped on the house side and so I asked him if he is looking for somebody and he said he is looking for a young lady named Sherlett. So I told him the only Sherlett I know lived around the corner by the next lane and he told me no they said it is this house and so I said I am the only person who lives here, me and my son. He said no he is looking for a Sherlett. So I only saw one person so when I told him that, I came to the stove and was walking back to the window to hand my son the frying pan with the beans and thing and I just saw the boy run from by the house side, grabbed my son, and put a black gun by his headside and told him to find the 38 and give me all the money. He said I want all the money from the drugs you were selling. My son said that my mom doesn’t sell drugs, my mom sells food. He said no, he said this is the house where they sent me.”
At this time another young man ran from around a dark corner to the rear of the property. Frank Trapp was then forcibly taken inside the home.
Pedrina Johnson,
“One of them grabbed him by the neck and hold the gun and dragged him in there and threw him in the chair, when he threw him in the chair he told me to find the money. My son hauled out his pocket and the other one, the red skinned man punched him and while he was punching him the other one had the gun and he told me to find the money. I told him I don’t have any money and I only have money in my purse. He said I had money in this room and he pushed me, whapped me in my head with the gun, pushed me on the bed and started raise my mattress and the dig up and he said to find the money in here. I hauled out my draw and I said unu tek anything unu want to take because as long as you don’t shot me or shot my son.”
Michelle Johnson, Sister of Shooting Victim
“And when she done give them give them it, the boy told my brother like this, he said bwoy you lucky, right I would spray out your marrow and so my mom says she told him don’t kill my son, spray out my marrow and kill me and so the boy turned around and told him that you lucky your ma bawl for you because I would have sprayed your marrow in yah.”
A frightened Pedrina says all she had was small change which she handed over to the young attacker. She thought that would have ended it, but instead things escalated.
Pedrina Johnson,
“The boy come, he grabbed up the money, he grabbed up my purse and took all the money out of the purse, stoned the purse into the chair and ran out of the house. When the boy was coming out of the house, that ice box was there and my son whapped him in the back and he swing back and he fired a shot. I was by the room door and so if I had stand up more this side I would have gotten shot. So my son was just going into his room when he shot the shot but my son didn’t know he got shot. He was going into his room to go into his bed. So he said mom, my foot is bleeding, it is burning me.”
The gunman and his accomplice got away by jumping in a vehicle described as a light blue Honda car.
Pedrina Johnson,
“A vehicle was parked on the back street and they said they jumped into a vehicle. The neighbour said they ran out of the yard and jumped straight into the vehicle and the vehicle drive off.”
Police rushed to the scene and took the victim to the KHMH.
Pedrina Johnson,
“We find one shell and this morning when I was behind the house my grandson found another shell around the house side so. I don’t know if they maybe fired another one after they left but I know I heard one and that is the one which gone into my house.”
Today Pedrina Johnson says she only wants justice for the attempted murder of her son.
Pedrina Johnson,
“Because you not safe even in your own house because I am a single mother so works. Everyday I go to do my business and come home. As I come home, I always stay lock up in my house, every day my house is locked and only last night, last night was the only night my door wasn’t locked because my son was out there helping me and thing. Every day as I come my door never open. Sometimes people think I am not even home.”
Caroline Hamilton, neighbour/family friend
“Because if it could happen to she it could have happen to anybody else. My heart goes out to that mother because that mother is a nice woman. I don’t see why they have to do Mr. Pedrina that. I don’t see why. That lady didn’t do no wrong to no one. They should have think twice, they have a mother, they have brothers.”
Michelle Johnson,
“I want to know why they did that, why.”
Area residents say they are easy targets in the neighbourhood because for over a decade they have been living in the dark despite numerous complaints about the need for street lights.
Caroline Hamilton,
“That they put light, I di plead to BEL please put light around here because innocent children could have been around and get hurt. Think about the children don’t think about what they want to do or don’t want to do, think about the children.”
According to a police report, the men got off with $300 in cash. Police say they are looking for two suspects known to them.
