Bloody Baron Bliss Weekend

Criminals seem to have gotten the better of the extended Baron Bliss weekend as the murders and shootings reigned.  Since last Friday, there has been a killing every single day in Belize.  The most recent homicide took place shortly after seven on Wednesday morning while Belize Maintenance Limited employee, Glenford Matura was working at the King Street/Euphrates Avenue intersection.  Someone apparently wanted Matura dead because the gunman who shot him unleashed a barrage of bullets at him. 

Matura did not die immediately.  He was able to run through an alley off Euphrates Avenue where a lady met him and drove him to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, drenched in his own blood.  A bullet had struck Matura in the head and that was the fatal wound. He died about an hour later. 

 But that was not all. The person who shot Matura also stole his bicycle.  While Matura’s family says he did not personally have any known enemies, the whole incident, according to them was a direct message to them from a rival group. 

What takes away any rationale that Matura’s homicide was simply a solitary incident is the fact that it followed the Saturday afternoon killing of his close friend, eighteen year old Elmore Neal.  Neal was shot twice by a police officer who has since claimed it was in self defense because Neal endangered the life of 27 year old Tyrone Thomas and the officer who shot him.  The Police Press Officer has said that Neal was spotted pointing a gun at Thomas and when the officer, a passerby at the time, intervened, he too became a target for Neal. 

But eyewitnesses have rejected that claim, saying that the gun was discovered several feet away from Neal’s body.  They contend that Neal was riding away and had dropped the gun. 

Again making matters more complicated for police is that just over six hours after Neal’s shooting death, Thomas was shot in his left arm while standing at the corner of Central American Boulevard and Trinity Street.  Police have made no arrests thus far for any of the shootings.

There were yet other shootings that took place in the old capital.  On Friday, March 5th five people including an 8 year old boy were shot. The incident occurred just after 11 that night and has landed 23 year old Tony Gamboa, 40 year old Vanzie Lamb, 29 year old Lyn McKenzie, 29 year old Genevive Coleman and the little boy in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.   The victims were near an alley situated off Water Lane when a trigger-happy gunman riding a bicycle opened fire.  Like in the previous incidents, police have made no arrests.

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