The last four weekends in Belize City have been marked by explosions of violence with multiple persons shot. It started ominously on Friday evening with the murder of Edmund Panton.
But, the trend of hyper violence abated somewhat; in the end two persons were shot, and one of them, only 19 years old was killed. Monica Bodden has his story:..
Monica Bodden reporting
The shooting incident happened on Saturday - just minutes after midnight.
19 year old Myrick Gladden was shot here in front of the Complex building on Administration Drive - only a block away from his home.
Gladden was walking along with his girlfriend 27 year Shyiana Allen and his friend 24 year old Richard Wade when they were approached by a man identified to them as Tevin Andrewin. Andrewin allegedly opened fire at the trio - hitting Gladden twice to the chest, once to the right side of his shoulder and left side of his back. His girlfriend Allen was shot once to her left calf.
The bloodstain on Administration Drive - left a trail which leads to this heap of sand in front of complex building This is where 19 year old Myrick Gladden collapsed before being rushed to the KHMH.
Voice of Augustina Ortiz - Mother of Decease
"My brother-in-law came to knock on my door Saturday night about a quarter to twelve or a quarter past twelve, when I came out he and my sister Virgil ask me if I can go to the hospital. I ask them for what and they say because Myrick just got shot and they took him to the hospital."
Monica Bodden
"At that point you went to the hospital?"
Augustina Ortiz - Mother of Decease
"Yes."
Monica Bodden
"He was still alive?"
Augustina Ortiz - Mother of Decease
"Yes he was still alive, but the security did not give me an entry to go in to talk to my son. She [the security officer] told me that I can't go in yet. About 3-3:30am the doctor and a nurse and CIB officer call me from outside and told me to come in, they took me in a room and the doctor told me that my son didn't make it."
Myrick Gladden was rushed to the KHMH emergency ward - where doctors began operating on him. But even with efforts made to save the young man's life, he expired 3 hours later.
While speaking with Gladden's mother today, she told us her son's life was being threatened - and there was even an incident where it happened in front of her. She believes he was targeted just for being friends with a young man she identified as Keith Lewis.
Lewis was gunned down on June 11th while standing in a yard on Roches Street.
Augustina Ortiz - Mother of Decease
"He was threatened in front of me about two weeks ago by a guy."
Monica Bodden
"Did he go to the police with that?"
Augustina Ortiz - Mother of Decease
"No he didn't go to the police."
Monica Bodden
"You know why he was being threatened?"
Augustina Ortiz - Mother of Decease
"They had some misunderstanding between a Keith Lewis who died and was buried about a week from yesterday. The young man came and say that he [my son] was hanging out with Keith Lewis."
And the murder of 19 year old Myrick Gladden has left his entire community outraged at the level of crime they say they have been experiencing over the past month.
Voice of Aunt of Decease
"This area use to be peace in the village. The whole of St. Martins' was love and all of a sudden like about two months now things got out of control. Nobody can stop the crime. On Police Street so many people can't come out, it's like jail in their own house. My sister who loss her son Myrick has two more brothers, they live back here where there are trees and stuff and its dark back there at night. There are no lamp posts. A lady, Ms. Pedrina son got shot up, they came to shoot her also. A lot of things are happening around here. They criminals hide underneath your house. I don't know what this country is coming to."
"Everyday a mother cry or if they didn't cry they have to babysit their child in the hospital. We can't take any more of this."
Monica Bodden
"This area around police street was a quiet neighborhood?"
Voice of Aunt of Decease
"It was a nice neighborhood, so sweet. We even could have walk to dance and come back from dance walking. Now, if they are not killing you, they are raping you. I don't know where these people that are doing these things come from. Who are they? Are they animals? Do they have hearts?"
Since April, six persons have been shot two chopped in the immediate vicinity of the Complex building. Two have been killed in the area in the past two weeks.
