Laddie Gillette is certainly Belize's most famous teenager.
And sadly his fame doesn't come from being a sports star, a musician, or even a government official. But that's not to say he couldn't have been all of those things.
No, Laddie Gillette's unfortunate shot of fame came after the shot that took his life, making him a symbol for senseless police brutality and for the loss of life of countless young men just like him.
But when will it all stop? That's a question that young people of Belize have been asking rather loudly in the last few days, taking to the streets to make their rage known and to demand Justice for Laddie. Here's more:
Patrick Williams, Protest Organizer/Artistic director
"Tonight we're having a memorial in the name of Laddie Gillette and also a demonstration of why police brutality should end. Earlier we had a couple of people laying down, all of us laid down on the foot of this park and we were supposed to represent the bodies that will be on the floor if Belize continues to go down this road. Police brutality has been a problem for years and it's only getting worse if we don't stop and stand on it now."
"This red dot is a shot in my chest. This is how it will look. This is also a red dot in my back to show that I got shot in my back while running away."
"We need to work together with the police department and the public so that we can come to a compromise so that we can meet in the middle because we need peace. We can't be mistaking people for criminals, there is a lot of people that are innocent out here and we can't be shooting at people when they are running."
"It's a step closer to showing that we want change and we want to see better, and we want to work towards better."
"Like the faith of the teachers it might just fall short of the goal but if we keep trying, if we stand together, if we all come out in numbers, change will happen and it can happen and I have faith that it will happen. It will only start with the younger generation. We are the change."
"We also have something like this going on today at this very moment in every district, I got members from all over the country and we organized something small just like this."
"In the future we're planning other smaller things and I hope we can come through with it but we need numbers."
A planned protest for Laddie in San Pedro has now been converted into a drive-through vigil at the San Pedro Lion's Den.
That's after the town council determined that a protest in the traditional sense of the word posed far too much of a risk given the island's already spiking COVID numbers.
