And turning now to crime news…..as we told you, 4 persons were murdered this weekend.
The first murder of the weekend occurred in Mahogany Heights. Most residents of that community regarded 52-year-old Carlton Gladden as their local Good Samaritan since he did whatever he could to help anyone in need. He fed his neighbours, gave them clothes, and even loaned them money. So while most cannot even fathom why a gunman would target him, the police suspect that he may have been a part of the drug world. Courtney Menzies traveled to the community today and has this story.
52-year-old Carlton "Yankee" Gladden was considered a "Heights Hero" for the way he took care of those in the Mahogany Heights community. But this hero had no one to save him on Friday night, when a gunman shot him inside his own home.
His neighbour and friend for over a decade said that he heard gunshots that sounded too close for comfort - but was still dismayed to find out Gladden - who had just given them food that day - was the target.
Marlon Dunn, Neighbour/Friend of Deceased
"Earlier in the day, he came over to our house and he brought some stuff so we could eat because we don't really have anything to eat and he's the only one who's been helping us around here. So Friday night we were in the house, me and my son, and we were watching movies and we heard two gunshots. So I asked my son what that sounds like he said, dad, it's gunshots. So I told him let's stay inside the house so he stayed in the chair, I stayed on the floor and lie in my bed. Couple minutes after that, he come outside and he saw Mr Yankee's burglar bar door open and his front door open so when he looked across he saw Yankee on the ground in a sitting position with his head leaning on the door."
Gladden had been shot and died on the spot, leaving those who saw him as an every day Samaritan with question about who could have possibly wanted him dead.
Marlon Dunn, Neighbour/Friend of Deceased
"We couldn't believe it, it was a shock for us, we couldn't believe it."
Courtney Menzies:
"Because he's not the type of person you'd think somebody would target?"
Marlon Dunn, Neighbour/Friend of Deceased
"No, he's a person who is very helpful, he's very nice to people up here, he doesn't give any trouble, he doesn't mess with anybody, he's always at home but on Friday, I guess he figured something was going to happen to him because this is the first time in the longest time- I've been here almost 12 years now, he is always at home, he never goes nowhere, but on that say Friday, he was just not at home all day. He just come and then he go back again, I don't know where he goes."
"I really don't know what else to say because whoever did it, they took a good man life because that man is looking out for us when we don't have nothing to eat so that man help us with food, he was a good man, for all the years I lived here, he's always been a good man to us."
But it wasn't just food - nor was it just the Dunn family. Gladden's neighbours will remember him as someone who gave a helping hand to anyone who needed it, no matter what they asked for.
Marlon Dunn, Neighbour/Friend of Deceased
"He's like an icon to us, I mean anything we want or anything we need, money to go to Belize City, whatever, he's always there for us, he never tell us no, he's always there for us, if he don't have it right now on him, he goes and he come back and he get it and he give it to us."
"He was just a humble man, his mother and his brothers and stuff from in the states, they take care of him, they send barrels for him, they send clothes for him, so he didn't have to work, his people used to take care of him and with the help that he get from his people, he help a lot of people up here. He gives them clothes from his barrel, he give my son clothes, he give all of us things. So he was a really good man, a really, really good man."
And while neighbors had no unkind words, police suspect that he was in the drug trade and that this could have led to his death:
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Officer
"So far the indications that it might be drug related."
According to Dunn, Gladden has one daughter that sometimes visited him. Otherwise, he lived alone.
Police also say that his murder was unrelated to the previous murder in neighbouring La Democracia Village on Thursday night.
