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We can’t say if the ongoing flood event had anything to do with a break in the number of homicides, but as the flood waters slowly recede, police it seems are being hit with another tidal wave of murders. After a lull since a deadly July, there have been three in the past three days, two of them last night.

The first one happened in Belize City just after seven. When the gunshots ceased, thirty seven year old Kevin Hendy lay dead on the pavement. Hendy had survived a murder attempt a year ago and knew his enemies wanted him dead; friends say he was wearing a bullet proof vest up until recently. But he wasn’t last night, and the way he was shot, we doubt it would have helped. Jacqueline Godwin reports.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
When 7NEWS arrived at the crime scene the lifeless body of thirty five year old Kevin Hendy was still on the ground. It was lying face up with what appeared to be a bullet wound to the head.

Police recovered nine expended shells believed to have been fired from a small car that sped past 4266 Central American Boulevard. Kevin Hendy was playing a game of dominoes with his neighbour seventy five year old Lloyd Carr and another person. The men were seated outside of this small wooden building when the shooting started.

Lloyd Percival Carr, Escaped Injury
“Somebody hailed him there. Who was the person, I don’t know. He left the table and went there. We waited for him to come back and then we heard the bullet. We heard the shooting so we dashed in there, we dashed in the yard.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
How many shots were fired?

Lloyd Percival Carr,
“I heard about three or four. About three to four shots. Well darling first time I ever heard them close ranged shooting there, not so close, because I was right there sitting down but my back was turned to the street. He just left the table and went there and then I heard the shooting.”

Stephanie Edwards, Cousin of murder victim
“I believe it was a retaliation, that they shot him just like that because the last time they shot after him around here, he got to escape when they shot his friend, he managed to escape and then they came back right ‘round again and shot him now.”

Reports are that Kevin Hendy was killed because he was scheduled to appear as the key eyewitness in the upcoming murder case of his friend Curlin “Cluck Cluck” Felix. Since that killing on September twenty ninth, 2007 there have been several attempts on Kevin Hendy’s life. Stephanie Edwards says her cousin was concerned that one day he would be killed.

Stephanie Edwards,
“He always feared for his life and said one of these days they will shot him and thing. I believe it is the same people who did the shooting came after him back and came back for retaliation and they said this is the time they will catch him and they caught him off balance. They came, they came on him off guard because if he saw them he would run for his because it is more than one time they have shot after him and he got a chance to save his life and this time he couldn’t save his life, his life went just like that.”

According to lead investigator Inspector Sinquest Martinez they are working on a number of possible motives.

Insp. Sinquest Martinez, Lead Investigator
“There could be several motive in this investigation. As you are aware the deceased had run-ins with the law and other people so it will take us time and it will be a wide investigation because we will need to get who he had problems with before.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
There have been attempts on Kevin Hendy’s life. Do you believe that the same players are involved?

Insp. Sinquest Martinez,
“It could be and we are looking in that direction. Like I said before, he had run-ins with the law and with guys outside and we are looking at that likewise because he was threatened and he has been on the other side likewise.”

The police say they believe there are only three suspects and they have one person detained.

Insp. Sinquest Martinez,
“We are getting cooperation but not as much as we’d like for us to solve this murder.”

Because Kevin Hendy was a prominent figure in the neighbourhood there is the concern of possible retaliation.

Insp. Sinquest Martinez,
“Well I do not want to say gang related but this is a feud between one party and another party."

Lloyd Percival Carr,
“I don’t fear death because when you are to die you will die anyhow. I am really not afraid, me personally because the way I believe life is that whenever you will die, you will die the way you are to die. That is what I figure.”

Stephanie Edwards,
“Well everybody is grieving right now, everybody is crying up and thing because everybody loved him. That was my favourite cousin and I loved him with all of my heart and I will hope that they find who shot him and thing and they get justice and hope that something good comes out of it and don’t let his life go just like that because everybody is holding a grief right now.”

The murder weapon believed to be a high powered calibre gun has not yet been recovered. Jacqueline Godwin reporting for 7NEWS.

18 year old Jerome Jason Wade, 18, is facing charges for shooting Hendy in April of this year. It’s also of note that the area he was shot last night is just a couple hundred feet form the locations where he was shot with Curlin Cluck-Cluck Felix.

In 2007, the total number of murders in 2007 was seventy seven. So far in 2008, eighty four persons have been the victim of homicides. Hendy’s was number 83, we’ll show you the 84th and 85th from Dangriga later on in the news.