21-Year-Old Gunned Down in Belize City Streets

The McFadzean family’s world turned upside down on Friday morning when twenty-one-year-old Floyd McFadzean was tragically shot and killed. Floyd, an insurance company employee, was driving his Ford Fusion along Cemetery Road when it was suddenly riddled with bullets. He had two passengers with him who managed to escape unharmed, but Floyd wasn’t as fortunate and sustained fatal injuries. Today, we spoke with his father, who shared that his son was an innocent victim, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. News Five’s Paul Lopez has more on this heartbreaking story.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

The life of a twenty-one-year-old Belize City resident was tragically cut short just after midnight on Friday due to the gun violence plaguing the Old Capital. Floyd McFadzean Jr. was driving down Cemetery Road with two passengers when his vehicle came under heavy gunfire at the corner of Johnson Street. The passengers, twenty-one-year-old Troy Gentle and twenty-year-old Deon Gladden, managed to escape with minor injuries. However, McFadzean was trapped inside his Ford Fusion because the driver’s door could only be opened from the outside. His father, Floyd McFadzean Sr., shared that his son died at the scene.

 

Floyd McFadzean Sr., Father of Deceased

“I don’t know mein I gone sleep, before I got the news from police. I got up about eleven thirty and look in his room and I didn’t see him. I said what, how this bway nuh come yet and know he has to go to work tomorrow. But she said she does not want to call him because the last time she called him he was with a female and he said, mom I am a big man now, you know how deh thing guh.”

 

Floyd McFadzean Jr. worked as a messenger at an insurance company in Belize City and had a close relationship with his parents. His father shared that the family never received any reports of Floyd getting into trouble or making enemies. They believe he was an innocent victim, caught in the crossfire because of the company he was keeping.

 

Floyd McFadzean Sr.

“None at all I know those guys, none. But the two guys that got shot, one in the neck and one in the foot. But he take all the shots. His car door it can only open from outside and the rest of guys jumped out the car and ran. He is the only one that can’t open the door and right there they put the rest of bullet in him.”

 

Paul Lopez

“Is it characteristic of your son to be involved in criminal life?”

 

Floyd McFadzean Sr.

“No, I don’t know he as that. He never do that, always the home early, hang out with we on weekends. A day like today I get my pay. We go to my grandma and we play cards, take a little drink and when we ready I tell him he could go and hail his friends but he does not want to leave us until we reach back at this house, me and my wife. The guys he was with more than one people left there and called me to say the guys are nothing good to hang with.”

Floyd McFadzean Jr.’s tragic death has left a huge void in his family’s lives as they grapple with the loss of their twenty-one-year-old to the violence that has claimed so many. His father wants everyone to know that Floyd was a productive citizen who loved playing video games and cherished spending quality time with his family.

 

Floyd McFadzean Sr.

“He just get a PlayStation like December. He said that would keep him from going out. He never was going out for a while until the night we wanted to go out. He was just resting and my wife said he got a phone call. After that he gone and when we hear it done happen.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez