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After a relatively low number of homicides in November, December has proven deadly. There were three homicides reported in the 25 hours ending at 7:30 this morning. Yesterday morning at 6:00, 20 year old Leonel Jose Donaire was found with a gunshot to the head – and this morning at 6:20 am –Jason Flores was reported shot while on his way to work; he died an hour later. And then – also an hour later – another Belize City male was killed on the street – a short distance from where Flores had been shot. It is a worrying outbreak of wild street violence – but what’s behind it. Is it gang warfare, random violence or old beef? Jacqueline Godwin went looking for answers today:

Natalie Brown, Common Law Wife
“I can’t believe, I just can’t believe. If he was in a gang or if he liked to chance people but he is not that type, he is not that. From his work he would come home and sit down and drink mostly with his friends. That’s all.”

In just minutes Natalie Brown’s life was shattered when her common law husband of fifteen years, twenty nine year old Michael Jason Flores was shot and died one hour later at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Flores lived who with his common law wife and their eight year old daughter had just left his home at number three Kraal Road but as he walked on Neal’s Penn Road just across from this Chinese grocery shop someone shot him.

Natalie said Jason’s last words to her at the KHMH were “don’t fret” and “my foot feels numb.” He was then carted into the operating theatre where he died shortly after. Natalie is now left behind struggling to find answers to why anyone would want to kill her child’s father.

Natalie Brown,
“Nobody in the world, nobody in Belize or in the world could say he did them something. He is innocent, they just tek his life just like that.

I blame hospital too Miss because I ride there and the time I took to reach there and they had him in the room where you got and put on the drips, when you get shot you are supposed to go straight into the theatre.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“Where was he shot?”

Natalie Brown,
“I guess in his side. This hard for me, this very hard. They just tek my one from me just like that. The person who shoot him, he couldn’t say who, he couldn’t even say.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“Why you say he can’t say dah who?”

Natalie Brown,
“Because they shoot him for reason. Why did he get shot. He is not like a gang bang person or nothing. He goes to work, he is not that.”

The police suspect the homicide may be an act of retaliation as a result of the ongoing gang warfare. But Natalie denies that report telling us there is no way Michael Jason Flores is involved in any of the shootings and murders that have occurred in Belize City.

Natalie Brown,
“Well this one is no gang banger because he didn’t do them nothing. Maybe it is because of the neighbourhood, I don’t know.”

And while family and friends at a loss as to why Michael Jason Flores was killed at this time Police Press Officer Clement Palacio says information suggests otherwise.

Clement Palacio, Police Press Officer
“Of course every family that is bereaved would expect justice and that is what we all want for the bereaved families that are involved. But the police must do their job and we are asking the support of the public and of course the persons, and you see I don’t like to get in the business of actually proclaiming people in a certain group or not. But again it is an ongoing investigation, it would be premature for me to even label anyone.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“But at this time the investigation is leading the police in that direction, that this homicide may be gang related?”

Clement Palacio,
“Yes.”

But for Natalie Brown her common law husband is an innocent victim.

Natalie Brown,
“He is a friendly person. He is just a loving person."

Police have detained one person for questioning. Jacqueline Godwin reporting for 7News.

Michael Jason Flores was the son of well known Belizean singer Mohobub Flores. He was a driver for Maheia’s Construction. Of minor note is that two to three years ago he was accidentally shot in the hand as he sat inside his home. The source was a bullet that ricocheted from a shooter firing a gun in the street.