Corozal Town witnessed an outlaw style execution in broad daylight this morning. The usual quiet in the northern town was shattered by gunshots this morning - and it happened right off the Belize Corozal road.
When it was done, Eder Hall lay dead - and his killer ran off into the morning.
Here's the story with the help of our colleagues at CTV-3:
Just before 9:00 this morning, Eder Hall was buying food at the Kush Deli when a man stood up beside him, and then pulled out a gun.
Hall dashed off from the Deli, with the gunman firing at him - and ran here unto Second street, where he collapsed from his fatal injuries.
He was shot more than once - and died on the spot - the first murder in Corozal in over a year.
An eyewitness says it sounded like firecrackers:
Voice of: Eyewitness
"I was here, we were doing something and we heard like firecrackers, that's all we heard. A sound that I have never heard before. I felt confused,"
"The people gathered around here and it was something quick. The young man was thrown on the street. I can imagine how the family of the young man feel."
Eder Hall's mother, Yolanda hung her head in awful sorrow today. She says her son did not deserve this end:
Yolanda Hall, Mother of deceased
"My son is a beautiful person. He never harms anyone - on the contrary, he helps - everyone knows he helps all the people. I never thought they would do this to him…tell me why!?"
"I am just looking for justice, please, they hurt our heart when they did this to him - why!?"
No answer for this mother - but the clue to one may rest in our archive. We do know that this 30 year old had escaped almost certain death before back in 2017, when he was kidnapped along with two friends but somehow escaped from a moving car - by a razor's edge so to speak:
Posted (May 8, 2017)
Eder Hall - Victim of Aggravated Assault
"I said "I'm not going to stay here, if I'm going to die I'm going to die trying." I'm not going to stay like a coward just let them kill me."
"So, I already had the Gillette in my hand, my hands are loose, so I used one hand to remove the bag that they have on my head and I tried to fight with the guy and take away the gun. I managed to take away the gun, when I took away the gun, I told him, what are you going to do now? I pulled the trigger but it didn't go off."
"I pointed the gun he started to run and when I pulled the trigger it didn't go off. So, actually they were also lucky that the gun didn't work, because I had decided to kill both of them right there on the spot. It was my life or it was theirs."
But this time, it was his life and not the killer who was brazen enough to pull off an execution in the open street broad daylight.
Police have made no arrests.
Hall was a resident of Chan Chen village, north of Corozal where his mother says he had a ranch.
Hall was the father of two kids, aged 11 and 5.
