December got off to a bloody start after two men were gunned down on Sunday afternoon. 26-year-old Cleon Smith and 30-year-old Kendale Ramirez had travelled all the way from the Stann Creek district to meet their end in the Lake I area of Belize City. Smith was there to visit his only son from his ex-girlfriend's house, while Ramirez was just there for the ride.
But Smith was warned by his family not to go to the Electric Avenue area, where the child was. In fact, he wasn't someone who normally wandered around the city when he was there. But his family says he was frustrated and desperate to see his 3-year-old son, and it was while waiting for him that he was ambushed.
And now, his family believes that he was set up - and police suspect the same.
Courtney Menzies spoke with them and has this story.
December started off with a double murder that has left two families shaken and at least one child fatherless.
26-year-old Cleon Smith lives in Placencia, but on Sunday, he drove to Belize to visit his son as well as to attend a court case that was scheduled for earlier today. On his way, he picked up a friend in Seine Bight, 30-year-old Kendale Ramirez.
But it wasn't long after they arrived at midday that they were gunned down as they sat inside the vehicle on Electric Avenue.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Officer
"Smith was visiting his child on that street when he got into an argument of some sort. We know that he left the area and was called back to that area and upon their arrival, they were ambushed in the red Kia SUV where these men received several gunshot wounds and died as a result of those gunshots. We know that investigators have a suspect and they are trying to put together the motive at this time."
And according to Smith's sister, Cleona Bood, all he wanted was to see the toddler he loved so much. Bood explained that he had gone to the house earlier in the day, but was allegedly chased away by his ex-girlfriend.
She had just come off the phone with her brother when the child's maternal grandmother told her the news.
Voice of: Cleona Bood, Sister of Deceased
"He said, sista, I just want… I just want see my baby. And I told him, bredda, go to your baby mom's mom, talk to her and tell her you want to see the baby. He said, sista, I done do that, he said I'm right here, and me and she are having a back and forth. He said, they're yelling all kinds of things to me, they locked the door in my face. He said, I hear the baby bawling in the background, he said, I wanna see my daddy, I wanna see my daddy."
"I got the phone, my baby got the phone, I got the number, and I called and said, Miss Jules, you heard from my brother because he wanted the baby. She said, yes, Cleona, she said, your brother just got shot up in front of my house, right in the vehicle. Well it's right then and there I bawled out."
"I told him, bredda, don't worry about that baby, I know it hurts because you love your son and you and your baby ma can't make it. I told him, one of these days, she will make you get hurt, make you get yourself in trouble, or make you get your death, and I never know yesterday would be that day and on that call when I told him leave from back there, I told him that."
Bood said it all happened so fast, which led her to believe that her brother was lured to his death.
Voice of: Cleona Bood, Sister of Deceased
"I believe it was a set up, who could know my brother was going to that house? The vehicle my brother was in is a rental, that is not even his. When I reached on the scene, I saw my brother had on a yellow shirt, when I reached on the scene, I'm far away, I can't even see in the vehicle, can't even see the brightness of the shirt because the vehicle is tinted so dark."
Courtney Menzies:
"To your knowledge, what reason would she have to want your brother dead?"
Voice of: Cleona Bood, Sister of Deceased
"Miss, I don't know, this young lady is just spiteful. She just spiteful, it's not a little bit we go through with she because of this baby."
And after the murder, Smith's mother, Stephanie Bood, went to the scene to see her son, but was reportedly manhandled by an officer.
Voice of: Stephanie Bood, Mother of Deceased
"When I reached on the scene, for my son, I reached to the vehicle, I saw my son, so I'm going to touch him, and when I'm going to touch him, the police man just haul me from backwards, straight into the drain, like I'm not a human being, and this is my son that they just chanced out of his life, because it's not like he's doing anybody any wrong."
"They gave my son a charge for gang, and that is what made my son lose his life. Because today, my son came to Belize, if he didn't have this case, he wouldn't be in Belize at all because he doesn't even like to come to Belize."
Courtney Menzies:
"He moved there to get away from the gun violence?"
Voice of: Stephanie Bood, Mother of Deceased
"Yes ma'am. Because Placencia is a nice place where ehe can just enjoy to be there."
And for this family, it's even tougher since they just lost another brother and son a little over a year ago:
Voice of: Stephanie Bood, Mother of Deceased
"I can't even explain, I can't even explain, the pain that I'm going through right now, only me and God know… only me and God know because me and my son, we are not gang bangers, we don't do anybody any wrong for them to chance my kids out of their life. No wrong. I won't come on the media and talk and say my son is an angel and he wasn't an angel. He was my angel, two of them were my angels."
Voice of: Cleona Bood, Sister of Deceased
"We haven't even gotten over my brother, we haven't gotten over Paul yet, for this to happen. We haven't gotten any justice for Paul, but we want justice for my brother because everybody, it's like what I told my ma, somebody who can't even see but who could hear about this situation could understand that it's a set up my brother got. He got set up."
And according to the ComPol, the police are already investigating two suspects - the only people who could have known that Smith would have been there at that time.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I'm not going to make any assumption without any facts to support it but there is in a need for us to interview the baby mother more in depth to see if it is that she may have something to do with the killing of those two individuals and likewise the current boyfriend that she has. Those two persons are our main suspects and we're looking at them to see if we will be able to come up with anything to prove they are the killers or may be behind it."
Smith's father, Cleon Tush Smith Sr, was also killed by gun violence back in 2016.
