22 year old Aaron Brooks was killed in Belize City on Friday night.
Yes, it’s another killing on the city’s south side – and another
family is grieving for the loss of their loved one. But what made this story
stand out to us is the cold-blooded calculation of the killers: they told Aaron
Brooks’ mother that they would kill her son, and said they were just waiting
for the right opportunity. Well, they got that on Friday night, when they set
wait for him and killed him, execution style. Jacqueline Godwin has more.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
This young man identified as twenty one year old Neil Grey police say shot and
killed twenty one year old Aaron Brooks. The young father of three was socializing
with his older brother Mark Brooks at his new home along with at least three
other young men when a lone gunman sneaked up from behind the residence and
opened fire.
Mark Brooks says the shooting started just after his younger brother told him
he felt uncomfortable and left his side from where they were standing on the
wooden verandah to sit on a car parked below.
Mark Brooks, Brother of Murder Victim
“And we the talk and I was telling him about life’s struggles
and how the boss just gave me this house and thing because recently I told him
the boss was looking to give me an house and boom I was telling him right now
I didn’t have no job and thing and that I lift my head up to life and 
I was trying to explain it to he the same way that violence no really pay.”
As the brothers chatted little did they know that a killer was making his way
towards them. They got the warning from a friend who spotted the masked gunman.
Mark Brooks,
“One gunman came right through here, fearing for his life he did so
to he and has the gun on him, he had the gun on him. If he had run, if he had
done anything, probably he would have been shot too. So he didn’t say
anything. When I looked, all of a sudden I just heard shots di bust. When I
heard shots di bust, I ran inside my house and when I checked it out, it looked
like the first shot was at me and I ran inside my house. And when I ran into
my house, I ran to the back and like nine shots end up being bust and my little
brother was hollering for me but I couldn’t come out because I didn’t
have anything to come out to try and help him, to try and defend him like I
normally….”
The bullet that missed Mark Brooks tore through the verandah’s wooden
railing but Aaron Brooks believe to be the intended target was trapped.
Carolyn Leslie, Mother of Murder Victim
“When I got to the hospital and I saw my son, I saw one bullet wound
here, one on his side, and on his foot. Those were the three obvious ones I
saw.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
You believe he was shot more than three times?
Carolyn Leslie,
“I believe he was shot more than three times.”
But why would anyone want to kill twenty one year old Aaron Brooks? Carolyn
Leslie says she knows it was her son’ trouble past and an altercation
with a brother of Neil Grey that ended being shot and it landed Aaron Brooks
in Hattieville Prison for three months on remand. But while the case was pending
in court his life was constantly threatened.
Carolyn Leslie,
“The boy they used to come around to threaten we and tell us that 
I will your son, it won’t be my brother who kills him but it will be me
will kill him. The two brothers used to come around here and threaten us and
threaten him and tell him he will be a dead man because of he and his brother
had a beef but they were at court so I don’t see why they took it in their
own hands and just kill my son.
They passed here the Monday and they told we that they will kill him. They
told me they weren’t ready for my son but as soon as they could get him
where they want him, they will kill him.
The misunderstanding was all about a Wednesday night my son was hanging
out, my son born and raised around here, this is where he born and raise, and
he went down the street to his friend who they grow up together and another
friend came and gave him something and he said I don’t use this and he
just sold it to somebody else.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
What thing?
Carolyn Leslie,
“It was marijuana. And then he said I don’t use this and then
he just sold it somebody else and then this boy Grey came and told my son that
he doesn’t want him selling nothing on my block because you are hampering
my progress. But my son is an easy somebody, he just walked away and he came
home. When he came home he sit down out there on the bench we have right out
there and we heard some shots but we got up and I Aaron who was shooting at
him and he said it was Grey. He said he didn’t worry with those little
boys because they couldn’t do him anything. The next day he got to go
to work and he went to hail the same young boy who he went hail the night and
same Grey ran down from his house with a gun in his hand, point it in my son
head and told my son, ‘yuh see how unnu pussy bwoy will get killed out
yah.’ So my son told him if you want to kill me then kill me. And then
the two got into a hassle and throughout the hassle, the gun went off and Grey
got shot and he went to police and told the police that my son shot him and
they arrested my son, charged my son.”
Carolyn says her son knew that his life w as in danger and maybe that is why
he kept away from the family including his three very young children ages five
to one years old.
Carolyn Leslie,
“I used to see my son everyday. I saw my son sometimes two times for
the day. He just started to go, he distanced himself from his children, from
everybody. He just started to distance and distance and distance until they
shoot my son.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
The last time you spoke with your son was when?
Carolyn Leslie,
“I spoke to my son Wednesday, last week Wednesday. Wednesday night
he said mommy I want to come talk to you, I want to talk to you Saturday because
I am going through some things and I want to tell you. I said Aaron I will be
right home on Saturday, I will be right home, and that is the last day I see
my son to talk to.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
And then his life was taken, so you never got the chance to speak to your son
about what was troubling him.
Carolyn Leslie,
“Never, never because he never did come back and tell me mommy what
is happening.”
Then on Friday as Aaron Brooks headed to his brother’s house he reportedly
saw the man believe to have taken his life or an informer.
Mark Brooks,
“They told me that he saw his enemy too, his enemy, and I told him
and told me that to worry about nothing and everything is straight. Just like
that he told me and I just went with his word and I said well everything was
straight same way.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
So he saw one of the guys he had the misunderstanding with?
Mark Brooks,
“When he got here, one of the guys came way through here, way through
here and just swing back.”
Carolyn Leslie,
“Some next guy came and looked up in my son’s face and then
went back and then in the next ten to fifteen minutes the boy came with the
gun and just shoot my son, like he just came to see if it was him there and
the next person just came and just shoot him.”
ASP Julio Valdez, CIB
“We are aware that sometime before there was an incident involving
Neil’s brother and Aaron Brooks. They had some kind of incident pending
in court against each other and so we believe it could have been this that caused
Neil Grey to retaliate and take action against, shooting Aaron Brooks.”
Carolyn Leslie,
“Everyday as I say, everyday I was looking forward to it but I was
looking out not for him to die but maybe he got hurt, they shot him and he gets
hurt. I wasn’t expecting for a death. I was looking out for maybe him
getting shot or he will get hurt and maybe we would have to take care of him
or something but death, I wasn’t expecting death and this pains because
he was my son I could have depended on for everything everything done for me.
If I wanted a nail drawn in a board, he will put it in for me.”
Today twenty one year old Neil Grey was formally charged for the murder of
twenty one year old Aaron Brooks. Reporting for 7News Jacqueline Godwin.
On September third 2008, Brooks was charged with the attempted murder
of 23 year old Everal Grey, he’s the younger brother of Neil Grey, the
22 year old who ahs been charged for Friday’s murder. Everal Gray was
shot three times in August of 2008, he claimed at the time that Aaron Brooks
had shot after him five times.
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