Since last week Thursday, our newsroom has been following the worrying spike in gang murders in the Mesopotamia community in Belize City.
It began with the murder of 17-year-old Gerald Tillett Jr.
2 nights later, on Saturday, there were the double murders of 51-year-old Raymond Garcia, and 56-year-old Wayne Peteau, who were senselessly killed in a gang war they had no connection to.
And then, on Monday night, 33-year-old Tyrone Lemar Young was shot and killed in what appeared to be a failed drive-by shooting.
So what's driving this sudden flare-up in gang violence? This evening, we caught up with Police Commissioner Chester Williams on West Street, in the heart of the war zone between two neighbouring gangs. He told us in an exclusive interview that all this violence is a dispute between George Street and Taylor's Alley.
Here's how he explained the series of violent crimes that happened after the killing of Gerald Tillett Jr:
Reporter
"What is causing all of this strife and conflict?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Obviously there is an issue between George Street and the Taylor's Alley crew. You would know that sometime last year through the efforts of the area rep., there was some sort of a truce between George Street and Taylor's Alley to the extent that they were even engaged in playing different sporting activities together and so I would want to think that that truce may have led this young man who was killed Gerald Tillet Jr., to have felt comfortable in the Taylor's Alley area, because if you look at where he was shot and kill it would have been outside his zone, but the video footage that we got from our surveillance camera showed that he was with the 2 individuals - he was riding and the 2 of them were walking beside him, they were talking quite casually as if there is no issue between them and when they reach a certain area one of them just took out a gun and shot him."
"Again, I guess that friendship or that truce that they may have had may have led him to feel comfortable to the extent that he went over there walking, riding alongside them and that led to his demise. Since we have had that shooting we have seen where George Street have been determine to retaliate and we did a lot in terms of going after those persons we believe would have retaliated as well as those who believe they would have retaliate against, with a view to avert retaliation and what happen, they went after a group of old persons who were inside a little building socializing playing dominoes."
