After an entire year that was on trend to be low on murders, yesterday three were reported - including the first Belize City murder in almost 8 weeks.
After a long lull of urban violence - last night's murder fell into a familiar pattern - except, in this case, the victim was an 18 year old confined to his wheelchair from the last time he got shot. He didn't survive this one - and Jules Vasquez spoke to his family today:
18 year old Trayson Gibson had been confined to a wheelchair since 2022, when a bullet to the spine left him paralyzed.
He got around on an electric wheelchair. And last night at 7:30, that's where he died, wheelchair bound, 300 feet from his home off Rivero Street.
He lived with his grandmother who heard the shots:
Voice of: Trayson's Grandmother
(Sigh) I just start to cry. I ask what happened, because I don't know. I know he doesn't mess around with people, he do no one nothing. He just started circling around after what had happened to him. He didn't want to go on the street or nothing."
And the street is where he spent most of yesterday - in front of his home, and then up the road with friends. At 7:30, a motorcycle passed and fired shots at a group, hitting Gibson and Adrian Welch. Gibson was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead:
Voice of: Trayson's Grandmother
"The intended target wasn't him. Definitely, because he could have gotten it before. He was out here for hours waiting for them to talk and nothing didn't happen. So I know he wasn't the intended target."
But when the bullets started to fly, the young man in the wheelchair was the only one who could not run for cover:
Voice of: Trayson's Grandmother
"Everybody else could have moved, but he was in the wheelchair. The wheelchair is electric, so when he usually stop, he usually shut it off. But when he is ready to go, he would put it on back and at the moment I think it was off. But they told me that when he realizes what was happening, he put on the wheelchair, but he ran right into the fence."
And while his family is left to grieve, this young man's life came to be defined by and ended in lethal violence - but his family remembers a time before:
Voice of: Trayson's Grandmother
"He was a football person, he played basketball and in one overnight he end up like that and he never did went to therapy, so he was a strong guy."
And one who sought independence. He was looking for a call center job:
Voice of: Trayson's Grandmother
"Most of the call centers say they don't have the wheelchair access, so they couldn't take him. So he got push back with that, because he couldn't go up to work and they weren't hiring for home right now, so he was getting push back."
Police do have suspects that are being sought:
Police have a checkpoint in the area and multiple surveillance cameras.
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"We have not established a clear motive, we have several leads we are following up on this."
Jules Vasquez
"Was Mr. Gibson the intended target?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"We are not sure who was the intended target, there were two of them there and the shots were far towards them."
Jules Vasquez
"In terms of the, we know that that area has a police check point around the corner and there are surveillance cameras in the area."
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Yes, several leads have been obtained and follow up is being done and as I said we have several persons in the custody, depending on the investigation."