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It happened in front of a long Barracks on the corner of Ebony Street, in the shadow of a police camera. This morning his family and friends gathered to share in bewildered grief for the father and grandfather gone too soon. Cherisse Halsall reports.

At 5:50 45-year old Keith Courtenay and his 6-year-old grandson were walking into his mother's yard at Ebony Street's Long Barracks compound. It's a habitual evening walk for the duo who go to give Courtneay's 88-year-old mother her medicine and a bit of family time. And, they are often accompanied by Courtenay's toddler granddaughter. It was sheer luck that she wasn't with them yesterday. Courtenay's brother Edmund told us what happened before the two could reach his mother's door.

Edmund Williams, Brother of the deceased
"When he came from work and normally when he comes from work he comes to hang out through the, right ya, and he and his grandson walked into the long barracks right here and by the time they got to the basketball court."

"The young boy just came from off of the street right here into the yard, and thing and started to fire shots and I mean when he heard the shot he realized that it was a gunshot, and thing, he just jumped in front of his grandson to protect his grandson and he ended up getting all the shots in his back."

"One of my friends told me, who lives through here, that all that he said to him was, "Bwoy they young Bwoi di ef round and then he took two more steps and fell down. It's just sick you know, it's just sick."

"He wasn't into any gang or anything. He wasn't a gang banger because he was already 45 years old. He wasn't into that."

"Maybe they 're coming after somebody through the barracks here and they used him as, but like what I said the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't know what that means because I don't know where you could go in Belize that if you have shots they won't say wrong place at the wrong time. I mean we won't be able to walk anywhere in this country directly."

Courtenay's sister Audrey says she can't understand why her brother was killed this way because he was a god-fearing family man.

Audrey Courtenay, Sister of the Deceased
"He was my mom's baby. His name was Keith Courtenay. He had five children and his wife, four boys, and one girl. He was a family man he looked forward to going to church with his children on weekends he and his two children plus his grandbaby go to church on weekends and he was somebody who didn't give trouble from work to home, church and that's it you know so I don't understand Why."

And as the family mourns they feel a sense of futility in the pursuit of justice.

Edmund Williams, Brother of the deceased
"It hurt me in a sense and thing that you know that I see my brother die in vain. This going right down the drain just like all the rest of the murders just like how I see mothers crying on TV my mom will cry the same way, my sisters and brothers will cry the same way. We will have the memories in our hearts and thing right, the rest of the country is just gonna forget. It's just another black man dead, another black father dead."

Two fathers and grandfathers dead within an hours of each other:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We know for a fact, though, that the shooting with both elderly or middle-aged persons are related."

Whatever the nature of the murder, Courtenay is gone and that means that he won't be here to give a guiding hand to his six-year-old grandson, a boy who witnessed horrifying violence, violence that will, no doubt, contribute to an enduring childhood memory.