This was the chaotic scene at the Marion Jones Stadium on January 31st, the night 39 year old Brandon Baptist was fatally shot during a football game.

It was the first time a murder occurred during A BDFA event, and it left the Belize District Football Association with the job of figuring out how to move forward safely.

And today, they held a meeting with the Police Department to do just so. One of the executive members explained that the main focus for this weekend's games has to be increasing security.

Ian Gaynair, Executive Member, BDFA
"I think we gotta step up our security force and that was what was discussed in the meeting. We need more men on the ground and we have a lot of top notch security that will be on the ground at both the semi-finals and the final game so I want to assure the Belizean people, the people that attend football, the kids, everybody, that they will be safe, we will have more than enough security out there and I would like to invite everyone to come out and see."

"They have intelligence, ways how to deal with these types of people and I am sure that anyone that goes to both the semifinals and the final game on Saturday, they will go with respect and know that they can't take their stupidness out there."

But why didn't the BDFA employ more officers in the first place? Gaynair said it was because they don't usually see a large crowd at the games.

Ian Gaynair, Executive Member, BDFA
"When it comes to little security at that game, like I said, in the past - I'm in office about 6 months but in the past, they only had the same thing, like 4 police but it never had the crowd that I managed to pull out. Did my marketing and I was amazed, I was shocked to see so many people I pulled out of the city on a Friday night to go and watch a football game in Belize City."

"But definitely we'll step up the security, the amount of people at the game, we'll step up our security measures."

Courtney Menzies:
"Do you believe it was, in some respect, a lapse in judgement? If your goal is to bring out more people and you know that it gets unsafe, especially at night, shouldn't the next thought be, well, we need more police?"

Ian Gaynair, Executive Member, BDFA
"Maybe it was a lapse in judgement, I won't run from that because I felt like we could have maybe gotten a few more but the tournament was running so smoothly that I didn't think that something like this would have happened."

But this time they'll have more than just police officers - they'll have assistance from the team that ensures that the William Dawson Sprite Basketball Tournament goes through without a hitch. And the National Youth Program Coordinator explained how they're able to do it.

Douglas Hyde, National Youth Program Coordinator, BPD
"For the past three to four years, the LIU along with the police department have been doing a lot of mediation. Some of these players, some of these communities are part of that process so when there's an incident like that that happens, it takes us backwards, it takes steps behind, which we need to work on in the dialogue and communication with the communities."

Courtney Menzies:
"What advice do you pass on now to the football federation?"

Douglas Hyde, National Youth Program Coordinator, BPD
"It's a work in progress for us. Myself and other in the LIU have been working with these people for years. I'm not a junior person, here I'm a senior person who has 18 years so it's a level of experience that we have and that level of connection that we already built with these communities and these young persons. When you separate us and other persons who have been working in these communities, it takes a different approach and so when you don't understand the dynamics, and the LIU is not involved in it, then when issues come up, when things that you didn't see that we can see, we can address far beyond just safety and security."

Courtney Menzies:
"What happens if you see known BLC and known PIV members coming to the game?"

Douglas Hyde, National Youth Program Coordinator, BPD
"Part of the strategy is to have the LIU and our intelligence officers working together and there's still discussion with these guys, Mr Nuri and Raymond Gongora are still working with these communities and this is a plus. You see these are the things that happen in the background that people don't know. And so when the competition which will push off tomorrow and Saturday is to encourage these teams while the competition going on, please, if you have that kind of vibes, just don't come and we're encouraging them not to participate but to let the competition continue to move forward."

The semifinals will be held on Friday, while the final game will be on Saturday.