And the country is holding its breath, hoping that we won't be faced with a massive COVID wave and the accompanying deaths - but while the pandemic is spiking, the gun violence in the city hasn't taken a break. Three persons escaped death after they were shot on Friday night. One has since been discharged but the other two are still recovering at the hospital.
But how did an evening of spending quality time with family almost turn deadly for a pair of cousins and a grandmother visiting from Placencia? Courtney Menzies went to their Victoria Street home and found out. Here is her story.
Two men and a woman are recovering after they came under gunfire at their own Victoria Street home. 25-year-old Derrick Jones, 32-year-old Jeffrey Pott, and 52-year-old Rose Garbutt were enjoying their Friday night with family when, around 10:30, a gunman lifted his hand above their fence and opened fire.
Lydia Estrada, whose son and nephew were hit, said that the scene was chaotic following the gunshots.
Voice of: Lydia Estrada, Mother and Aunt of Victims
"I was down here but I walk upstairs to go and get some water to come back downstairs and while I coming down back, I heard gunshots so I run back inside."
"I was in shock, I just hear shooting and then I hear bawling and when I reach down here it's then I heard Shandy ma get shot, and my son and my nephew get shot."
"When I come downstairs, everybody jump up and everybody was bawling and screaming and looking for ambulance for the persons that got hurt."
And while her son, Jones - who was shot in his foot - has since been discharged, the other victims, both of whom were shot in their midsection, are still receiving treatment.
Estrada said she doesn't know why her family was targeted:
Voice of: Lydia Estrada, Mother and Aunt of Victims
"We don't know anything, right now were in shock, we're really confused, we really want to know the answer right about now, we don't know how and why or what, we don't know what caused this."
"They are people like get drink, they like take their drink, they have their fun, they quarrel with one another then they go in and the next morning they make up back."
Garbutt's daughter, Shandy Vernon, was right beside her mother at the time of the shooting. She said the only thing on her mind was getting her 11-month-old baby, who was in Jones' hand, to safety, risking her own life to do so.
Voice of: Shandy Vernon, Daughter and Girlfriend of Victims
"I see somebody coming but I didn't know it was gunshot that they were coming to shoot so when I really get the sense that they were gonna shoot it was because I see someone just raise up the gun and I run knowing my ma was still sitting in the chair and when we run, my baby was in my boyfriend's hand, and she dropped and I had to turn around and just pick up my baby and run under the house. More or less after that when the gunshot done happen then my ma tell me she get shot because I didn't even know she got shot."
"For me, I was still in shock like right now because I didn't expect it, it was something that happened unexpected and it happen so fast so I didn't really feel anyway, I was just left in a shock, I just had to do what I had to do."
And Vernon couldn't say if her boyfriend was involved in any conflict; she knows her mother was innocent since she doesn't even live in Belize City.
Shandy Vernon, Daughter and Girlfriend of Victims
"My ma isn't from here, she's from Placencia, she just come down the same Friday to spend a day or two with my baby because she usually just come hail we and go back but this is one time she get caught up in something."
"I'm happy about my ma and Jeffrey, they're good, but I tell you my ma never expected that and that touch me bad, that really touch me to see my ma get hurt, and that could have been my baby, my baby not even one, my baby will be one next month, that could have been my daughter. So I just happy to see my ma and my cousin in law to get back slowly."
"I don't think anything will escalate because at the end of the day we'll leave everything in god's hand we will leave it to let God do his work and we will just leave it like that."
At this time, the family is not sure when the other two victims will be released from the hospital.
