And that shooting was reportedly the product of a decades old gang dispute between two Northside gangs which exist in close proximity to each other.
Gang violence was one of the major drivers of murders in May of 2021 - which is in a three way tie for the deadliest month on record.
The Police minister said that they're turning once again to that oldest and most tired trick in the police playbook: more boots on the ground.
But, he added that they are also looking at other measures:
Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs "We're always looking at new angles, new strategies to combat crime. The last time we spoke, it was the end of the first quarter and we had quite a remarkable feat up to that point, it had been the year 2021 in terms of the first quarter had not seen such good numbers since 2014 in terms of violent crime and so quite unexpectedly in the month of May, we went into a state of terror so to speak, I think 21 murders just in May alone so that's a very concerned statistic and of course we have been doing all that we can, looking at different angels, of course beefing up patrols in these crime ridden areas, particularly since a lot of the Belize City crime is based on retaliation, many times they don't even know what spurred the first murder but it just then like a snowball continues out of control, so far for the last week I would say it seems to be balancing off again but at the same time we cannot keep our feet off the pedal so we are actually still ramping up our efforts in Belize City and across the country but in addition to greater police presence, I have been working along with different agencies, of course in terms of ministerial assistance, the Ministry of Education has come forward to donate 40 scholarship to ITVET to teach these young men skills training so that's and excellent initiative on the part of the Minister of Education and of course we're working with the Ministry of Human Development, Youth and Sport, and Lands to see how it is we can actually create opportunities for these young men."
