Today, 27 year old Nelson Zelaya was shot in the face outside his house in Gardenia Village in the Belize District - he died from those injuries a short time after.
According to reports, Zelaya was hanging out around a plum tree in the back of his property, when he was gunned down by a still unknown assailant. Zelaya's pregnant girlfriend and their three children were present at the time of the shooting. Police and an ambulance arrived on the scene shortly after, and Zelaya was rushed to the KHMH. Ladyville Police Superintendent Juanito Cocom told us more.
Inspector Juanito Cocom - OC, Ladyville Police
"Our detectives visited miles 21.5 on the Phillip Goldson Highway, Gardenia Village. About 100 feet behind a wooden a house police observed a dark skin male person lying with his back to the ground bleeding profusely from his face. He was identified as Nelson Zeyala, 27 years old, labourer of that same address. At that time he was still breathing, so police took him to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where he later succumb to his injuries. We are treating the incident as a murder now and following it up."
Reporter
"We understand that members of Mr. Zeyala's family have also been in contact with the law, especially his brother who is current incarcerated. Do you police think that this is related to any criminal activity?"
Inspector Juanito Cocom - OC, Ladyville Police
"At this moment the investigation is very young, so we cannot say what the motive might be."
Zelaya succumbed to his injuries shortly after arriving at the hospital. Cocom and his family are no strangers to law enforcement. His brother, Anthony, is currently serving a 12 year prison sentence for keeping prohibited firearms, unlicensed ammunition and drug trafficking. Still, Zelaya's neighbor, Ann Olivera, who says she has been looking after the brothers since they were babies, does not think he was involved in any illegal activity. She told us that trouble came to Zelaya because of the company that he kept.
Ann Olivera, neighbor
"Yes, I don't see him a trouble maker. I wouldn't tell a lie on him. He is a person that who has something and you ask him for it, he will give it to you. But it's the company that he keeps. The bible says you are known according to the company that you keep. And a corrupted tree cannot bear a good fruit. That's what the bible says."
Alex Courtenay, 7News
"So then you are not surprised that this happened because of the people who is hanging out with?"
Ann Olivera, neighbor
"Right over this place, they killed a man named Underwood. He father, we are two brothers children. So when they killed him, I heard with my own ears, they say the next one going is this one. I don't know if he is involved in any criminal activity. All what I know is that they smoke up their thing, which all of them along here does the same thing. So I haven't seen him in anything out of the way. I cannot tell a lie on them. I know that he used to treat me very good."
Police say that no one has been detained for questioning yet, but Inspector Cocom told us they do have some leads.
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