At the end of last night's newscast, we left you with the late breaking story that the Felix brothers, Maurice and Emory, had been gunned down on Baymen Avenue.
The pair had been long-time targets on the City's Southside, mostly for their unusual backstory. They spent 8 years in jail enduring and emerging from 3 murder trials for the same case. And, then, after being free for only a few months, they ended up back on remand for another murder case.
That was in 2015, but, earlier this year - in January - the brothers got bail - and since then - their long history of alleged acts of violence has stalked them - and they have been wanted targets on the streets.
It culminated last night in a dramatic double murder on the northside, Baymen Avenue, where gang violence is not common.
Our news team was on the scene, and Daniel Ortiz reports:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
7News arrived on Baymen Avenue last night and found a heavy police presence. They were attempting to keep control of the crime scene where the brothers, Maurice and Emory Felix, had both just been killed. The Felix brothers went to the Sky Deck Sports Bar & Grill, which is located n the top flat of this building, and they may have thought that they were safe. After all, it is all way across the city from the Southside, and gaining entry to it is not so easy.
But, 2 calculated and organized assailants tracked them down at Sky Deck, ambushed them, and gunned them down. Emory made it all the way down the bar's steps and into the street, where he collapsed and took his last breath.
ASP Alejandro Cowo
"Police responded to shots being fired at Baymen Avenue. As a result, they visited a business establishment, where on the street side, police observed Emory Vincent Felix, 33 year-old Belizean, with apparent gunshot wounds to the body. Upon police making inspections inside the business establishment on the second floor, they observed the body of Maurice Cardinal Felix, 34 years-old Belizean, also with gunshot wounds to his body. What police gathered so far is that both male persons were inside of the establishment playing pool, when persons entered and fired several shots at their direction causing the above mentioned injuries to them."
Their mother, Janet Felix, who was at her home, when she received the news she had been dreading, probably for years, that her sons had been murdered.
Janet Felix - Mother of the Deceased
"My daughter came from out of this room, and came to my room. She said, Mom, you have to get up, and change your clothes because those boys were shot up, and it doesn't sound like they're alright."
"I get into a vehicle and got around to Baymen Avenue. I saw the people, and when I got there I saw my little son lay right down. And I took off the sheet, and he had his eyes wide open. And I took my hand a placed it on his eyes to hold them down, and to make sure his eyes don't stay open."
"And I asked, where is my other son. They said come, we'll take you."
"I saw Maurice lying down, which all his dreadlocks opened out. He was lying down, and his eyes were open as well But, they told me a cannot go to him yet because they aren't done."
Maurice and Emory Felix became infamous back in 2006, when they were jointly charged for the murder of 29 year-old Mitchum Heredia. Maurice was already having run-ins with the law several years before that, when he was only just a high school student.
But, it appeared that their time as free men ended back 2007, when their first supreme court trial for the Mitchum Heredia killing resulted in them being convicted with murder. That conviction and the subsequent life sentence was set aside by the Court of Appeal, which ordered a retrial. That happened in 2012, and after 5 hours, the jury couldn't make up their minds and so a mistrial was declared.
They were then retried for a third time in 2014, and once again, after 6 hours of deliberation, that jury couldn't decide whether or not they killed Mitchum Heredia.
They were finally freed 2 months later after the DPP's Office entered a nolle pros against them for the 2 hung jury results.
1 year later, in May 2015, Maurice Felix was shot along side another man on Gill Street. Fortunately, he survived that attack, and only 1 month after that attempt on his life, police arrested and charged him, and Emory, jointly with murder for the shooting death of 27 year-old Mark Gentle. Their mother says that when police pointed fingers at them for Gentle's killing, they became enemies of persons connected to the Southside Gangsters.
Janet Felix
"Time bomb, They were time bombs."
Reporter
"What was it like, living with the fear that you do that it was just a matter of time before your sons are killed."
Janet Felix
"Well, I just pray that it never - Everybody, my entire family in the states knew that they wanted to kill them. Everybody knows. Everybody knows. Everybody knows the story I am telling."
Reporter
"Was the police cautious or wary that these 2 individuals were under threat like this?"
ASP Alejandro Cowo
"Well, we have been follow several information that we had received prior to this murder, yes, we knew that what they were detained previously at prison, and what had transpired several years ago, that they could have been a possible target."
As for their mother, she thinks that both Maurice and Emory Felix are victims of circumstance, who were not guilty of the crimes they were accused of. Moreover, she claims that they were labelled as bad boys, and treated as such, simply because they were the younger brothers of the deceased Kurlin "Cluck-Cluck" Felix.
Reporter
"For all the charges that have brought against your sons, do you think that they were ever guilty of any of the crimes police said they committed?"
Janet Felix
"I don't think so because in those things, they said that they killed this boy at the back of Yarborough here, Pamela son. Not so."
Reporter
"Mark Gentle."
Janet Felix
"And it's not so. This thing is from Cluck Cluck."
Reporter
"So, you think that from..."
Janet Felix
"This thing is from Cluck Cluck, I am telling you..."
Reporter
"So, you think that the bad reputation from Cluck Cluck caused them to be dragged into the streets?"
Janet Felix
"Yes, dragged them - the police dragged them into the streets, every time from they were young."
Reporter
"Do you believe that they have ever done anything to anyone outside in Belize City or otherwise, hurt anybody in any kind of way?"
Janet Felix
"Well, that's what I don't know. I don't know that. Since this Mark Vernon died, it's a different atmosphere around here. It's a totally different atmosphere that's around here. People are afraid to talk to me, because of the crowd over so."
Reporter
"Do you fear, after everyone's heard your version, your side, that they think, Miss Janet is defending her sons?"
Janet Felix
"No, I am not defending them at all because I am not walking with them out on the street."
With the death of Maurice and Emory, Janet Felix has now lost 3 sons to gun violence.
As you heard, Janet Felix believes that the constant police harassment caused her sons, Maurice and Emory, to become caught up in the street life. She claims that they became guilty by association for simply being related to Kurlin "Cluck Cluck" Felix, her eldest son. He was murdered back in September 2007. We need to note that she surely blames a police officer for orchestrating her sons' murders.
We note that after the Felix brothers were bailed in January, they started to live in a house not far from our studio and we often saw GSU personnel station din unmarked vehicles watching their house - reportedly to pre-empt any attack by rival gangs.
