And, looking back now to a weekend of violence.... In all, five and possibly six people – including a thirteen and fourteen year old - were shot between Friday night and Monday morning. One man was killed and the 14 year old remains in the hospital. The incredible part is that the violence in this small area was all started because of a misunderstanding over two cell phones – reportedly between the deceased, Neville Thomas and some young men from Taylor’s Alley – which is just down the street from where he lived.

To appreciate how tight an area this happened in, here’s a Google Earth satellite image of the three block sector where it all played out. At the right of your screen, you’ll see a red square that’s where Friday night’s murder happened and just down the street, the yellow line off Orange Street – that’s Taylor’s Alley.

On Sunday there was a retaliatory shooting at the Euphrates Basketball court – where you see that red tile at the left of your screen. Expended shells were also recovered from in front of the Salvation Army school. That was Sunday. And then this morning at 5:30 there was another retaliatory shooting on Glynn Street – the center of your screen.

That’s a bird’s eye view of gang warfare reportedly between Taylor’s Alley and George Street with a few other smaller rival groups thrown in there – all of them apparently armed. And while that’s the view from above, I’ve been on the ground all day trying to piece together the contagion of violence. We begin our coverage on Friday night.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
The spate of this weekend’s bloody violence started with this scene at the corner of Orange and West Streets: police carrying the bullet-riddled body of fifty three year old businessman Neville Thomas out on a stretcher.

Neville Thomas lived upstairs of this three storey concrete building. It is not certain what business he did but he was a familiar face in the neighbourhood and from all accounts a well liked resident. But just before eight on Friday night he was gunned down by unidentified men inside his apartment. Today a candle and a picture of the former soldier in the US military mark the spot where Neville Thomas died.

Information to 7News is that sometime after seven at least two unidentified men made their way to Neville Thomas’s apartment, knocked on the door and when he opened it one of the men made a comment and then opened fire on him. One of the bullets tore through the wooden front door.

Why was Neville Thomas killed? That is still being determined by the Belize City Crimes Investigation Branch but unconfirmed reports to 7News are that the homicide may have been triggered by a shooting in the area on Thursday related to an ongoing rivalry between groups from George and West Streets.

It is believed that Neville Thomas’s murder sparked a series of shootings that left at least two innocent persons twenty seven year old Gavin Zuniga and fourteen year old Isaiah Middleton suffering from gunshot wounds. Gavin Zuniga was among a group of friends waiting to play a game on the Euphrates Basketball Court around eight on Sunday morning when a barrage of gunshots rang out. A total of thirty youths were at the court when a lone gunman opened fire. It was Gavin’s first visit into the area and to the facility to play basketball. He was waiting on the sideline to play ball.

Gavin Zuniga, Shooting Victim
“You know I haven’t been playing ball in a while so I thought I needed some exercise so I went on to the court. There were ten guys on the court playing and so I just stand around and see if maybe I would have gotten a chance to play and after 15 minutes or so after I got there somebody came from nowhere and started off just ringing off some shots, like 15 to 20 shots, and I got hit maybe about the 8th shot because I was counting. I was frightened but I guess God was with me Jackie. The doctors at the hospital said I am a real lucky person. I got two shots at the same spot in the same hole and they came out on different directions.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“Exactly where were you shot?”

Gavin Zuniga,
“I was shot in the upper back and in the lower back that came out on this side and the one from the upper back came out on the lower back, the penetration from the lower back.”

Gavin Zuniga was along with his friend Geovannie Brackett told us he dropped to the ground when he heard the gunshots.

Geovannie Brackett, Witness/Friend of Shooting Victim
“But then shortly when I heard a little break in the bullets I thought it had stopped and I got up but shortly after that more gunshots, more rounds off and that is when I hit the ground again and so it was a frightening experience. It was very frightening. After a while I got up and I jumped the fence and I hid behind the vat and still yet two more rounds went off. So all the guys, about 30 to 40 guys out here, and you saw all the guys jump the high fence there, some jumped the other fence, some hit the ground, and two guys got shot.”

Gavin Zuniga,
“It is really crazy. I won’t say it is the government, it is the community effort now that we come together and put a stop to this madness because it is really mad and the word in the street is that there are different factions fuelling this type of thing and come on, the police can do something about these factions that are fuelling these type of crimes. I was there innocently just to play ball, that was it. I haven’t troubled anybody for the four years that I’ve lived in Belize City and I don’t intend to trouble anybody.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“So what you intend to do now, stay at home after this experience?”

Gavin Zuniga,
“I plan to move back home to Belmopan because I know if I was at a court in Belmopan on a Sunday morning nobody out of their crazy mind would have come…it would be out of the ordinary then, I think. So I think I will be safer home.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“And it was a large number of young men out here playing games so any one of them could have been the target.”

Geovannie Brackett,
“Exactly and one of the guys who got shot he works at the GST, the sales tax, a friend of mine, we are all hardworking guys out here playing basketball. It was like 30 to 40 guys were out here so numerous amount of guys could have gotten shot or killed.”

The second shooting victim is fourteen year old Isaiah Middleton. The standard six student of Salvation Army School was asleep in the living room along with his thirteen year old brother Charles. The oldest brother twenty three year old Akeem was asleep in a bedroom. As two gunmen stood outside of the front door another gunman was waiting at the back door. The report is that the men at the front door first knocked on the door but when no one opened the door that is when they stomped open the door breaking off its lock and from the doorway started firing.

Melanie Trapp who did not wish to appear on camera says the house belongs to the family but that the main residence is just across from the property. Melanie says she heard about seventeen gunshots.

Melanie Trapp, Sister of Shooting Victim
“I didn’t pay it no mind because I know shooting is always taking place around this neighbourhood but never knowing it was my brother who was sleeping that in the house they kicked and came in and shoot up them.”

The bullets tore through the house’s wooden louvers, glass window and ripped through the marley that laid on the floor of the living room where fourteen year old Isaiah Middleton was sleeping on a mattress

Melanie Trapp,
“The older brother said that he heard the gate open and when the gate opened, he was just coming out of the bathroom and the time he took to walk back to the bedroom, the gunman they came up, they came to the door and knocked. They were asking dah who and Isaiah was going to open the door without asking dah who but his older brother told him to ask dah who but nobody answered. So while nobody was answering, I went to lay down back but by the time Isaiah moved from the door and went back on the mattress they already stomped down the door. So he laid down and they started shooting. As they started shooting, Charles and Isaiah run but Charles went into that room and Isaiah run the kitchen way and by the time when he done run, he done get shot in his two foot.”

So who were the gunmen’s after? Well the family say the youngest brothers had gone over to the home to spend time with the oldest sibling who recently deported from the United States but the family does not believe that Akeem was the target but maybe one of his friends who started spending time at the house after Akeem came back to Belize but that this friend was not there this morning when the gunmen went to the home.

Melanie Trapp,
“And when they done shoot they run down the stairs and they hopped the fence to get out of the neighbourhood. Akeem just get deported from States after 9 years so when he went from here he was far young so he wasn’t into nothing like you would say he left beef here and came back and meet it.”

Shirlene Neal, Mother of Shooting Victim
“My common law son but as I tell you, when he left from Belize he was small so it is not like dah he period they have nothing with. I guess they passed and see the guys here or maybe they feel that everybody heng there now. All I know is they left from my house, done watch TV, said they were going on, because I told them remember school tomorrow, and they went across to sleep, and after 5 the gunshots wake them up.”

Shirlene Neal says she shivers to think that today she could have been preparing to bury three of her sons but is thankful to god that all of them are alive. While thirteen year old Charles was only grazed in the hand fourteen year old Isaiah Middleton is expected to remain hospitalized for one week.

Shirlene Neal,
“With the two foot, one of the bones broke and the doctor says he has to spend a week in the hospital.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“And after that he will recover normally?”

Shirlene Neal,
“Yes, well psychologically I don’t know because they are really messed up. I want you to see all the bullet holes in the flooring. We never expected up there to be a target, it is not like a heng out spot or anything like that. It is just that their brother came and they are glad for their brother to be around so he start sleeping upstairs because the house is empty, is what we are taking care of, and they go sleep up there. It is not that we were expecting in a million years that would happen like that.”

It has been a nightmare not only for those affected by this weekends shootings but those who also live in the neighbourhood like this neighbour who felt comfortable speaking with us behind his zinc fence.

Neighbour of Glenn Street
“I me the sleep. I only hear bow bow bow and you know with those things you don’t come out and peep. Only interfering people will come out and get hurt too because suppose I got one of the shots too. I only hear the sound like gunshots but I didn’t know exactly what time.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“But this morning when you got up and you understand it was a neighbour of yours.”

Neighbour of Glenn Street
“I came out this morning to use the bathroom and then I found out it was a gunshot and then I saw two officers, two persons standing by the verandah and then they get into the vehicle and gone. People the get more scared everyday because too much gun violence and sometimes innocent people who have nothing to do with it in the transaction because maybe you are standing up here taking your cool breeze and suddenly they fly past and shoot and they didn’t mean to shoot you but you get it.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
“And the bullet goes through your zinc fence, through your wooden door,”

Neighbour of Glenn Street
“That’s why you’re not safe in your own house.”

Geovannie Brackett,
“What I can tell you is that the ongoing violence on a whole is becoming appalling, it is becoming very alarming and from a Christian perspective I can tell you that when I came here yesterday morning I literally felt a stirring within my spirit and I started to pray and not knowing a series of gunshots was going to take place. I believe that something needs to be done and I believe our city is getting, I don’t know how to describe it, but the crime rate is escalating to the point now where we are talking about you can’t even play basketball safely.”

Gavin Zuniga,
“I came to Belize City to live some four years ago, the government at that time gave me a job at the Sales Tax Department. I ain’t no trouble man. I have my girlfriend and it is really crazy. I would want these guys to know to put the gun down and let’s come together and if it is a big party you want to have, then come. I will sell my car and let’s have the party. The gun thing is not working. I am an innocent person that could have been killed and I am so so frightened this morning and shocked. I am still trying to put the pieces together but I know if I can’t put my self out there to help these guys then it will continue; more people like me will be injured and I wouldn’t want that to happen because it is really crazy. They came to shoot somebody and I got hit along with three other guys that were in the hospital as well.”

Melanie Trapp,
“I feel real terrible about it because I have a son now, it is a boy, and I could never grow up him in this neighbourhood because it is ‘lone shooting. Suppose they just kill my son by mistake, a bullet just catch him, a stray bullet.”

Shirlene Neal,
“They need to really get down and do something about those young men all over Belize because innocent people are getting hurt and I could have been burying three of my pickney dem. I mean for what reason, they nuh di think. They honestly nuh the think out yah because they just feel like yeah I think I will get you, I will just get you.”

Police have not made arrests but reports say another man who was shot as a consequence of this same rivalry has made a statement and police are looking for on suspect. That shooting has not been reported by police but happened just west of the generalized area where all the gunplay happened.