Devon Bailey Shot; Crashes into Roundabout
Devon Bailey
A young man well known to police, Devon ‘Hulk’ Bailey, was gunned down on Friday night in Belize City. But as News Five’s Paul Lopez also found while doing this report, Bailey was also well known in the media, not only for his criminal past, but those times we he genuinely did seem to want to get out of that kind of life.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, Belize Police Department
“Sometime around 9:40, police visited a scene where they saw a black car crashed into the roundabout between UNO and Shell gas station on Central American Boulevard. In the driver’s seat, slumped over the steering wheel, they found Devon Bailey, thirty years, of an eight miles address. They transported him to the K.H.M.H., where he was pronounced dead around ten o’clock.”
Fitzroy Yearwood
Paul Lopez, Reporting
According to Police, Bailey was driving on Antelope Street when several shots were fired at him. Injured, he drove onto Central America Boulevard, and made it about two hundred meters, before he crashed. The area where this reputed Antelope Street Gaza member met his demise was once his domain.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood
“More like a friendship gone bad, or friends gone bad.”
News Five’s records of Bailey date back to June 2010 when he took the rap for a firearm offense, after an unlicensed nine millimeter was found inside his family home. Bailey was only eighteen at the time. He would have several other run-ins with the law following that incident, including an August 2010 robbery charge for which he was acquitted. He was denied bail in 2012 for an attempted murder on Raccoon St Extension. Later that year, he faced two additional attempted murder charges for another shooting on Raccoon Street. In 2015, Bailey was shot and hospitalized. In April of 2017 he spoke to News Five, optimistic after opposing gangs had committed to a crime-free Labor Day weekend.
Devon ‘Hulk’ Bailey
Devon ‘Hulk’ Bailey, Antelope Street Gaza [File: January 27th, 2017]
“I feel good because, you know, from the brothers and myself hold wahn lee commitment and seh well we wahn hold it down and we wahn try maintain wah lee peace and mend back earth, you know. I sih wahn lotta lee changes. I could go certain places, you know. Even though I still noh drop my guard and thing I feel safe because I meet some ah di brethren round and thing weh I mi have problem with and, you know, I noh feel no way. I noh di think no negative way and I sih pan di other side dehn noh di think no negative way also. So you know, I feel good and I wahn thank di bredda dehn too fi hold dehn lee commitment and seh well da peace wih di deal with and mek wi deal with di peace, you know, because at di end ah di day we wahn better off we. We wahn deal with fu we kids. We wahn be able fu sih fu we children have children.”
In July of the same year, Bailey was featured in another News Five story on the realities of the unemployment situation, and challenges he says he faced as he considered returning to school or entering the work force.
Devon ‘Hulk’ Bailey
Devon ‘Hulk’ Bailey [File: July 4th, 2017]
“I mi apply fi job already, I mi gaan work da few spots eena my, you know, eena di past. But due to eena di streets, like weh I tell yo, problem always come so like even though I mi have wahn lee job and thing, you know, things, my problem still mi di occur. People still mi di look fi me, you know, so I cyant function right with people di look fi me and then I have to go go work. I mi done apply fi wahn lee job already.”
And, in August of 2017 it had appeared that Bailey was renouncing guns for business as he joined the Introduction to Entrepreneurship Program under the Youth Apprenticeship Program.
Devon ‘Hulk’ Bailey [File: August 4th, 2017]
“The whole point ah it dah fi show we as ghetto youths that we could still be successful business people too. Nuh because we come from nuttn means that we fi remain nuttn. That’s why we deh yah today day and we deh inna deh yah type ah program suh we could learn and build fi we knowledge.”
Andrea Polanco
“Is it your hope to own your business one day?”
Devon Bailey
“Miss, I got lotta hopes and dreams fi own my business one day. I dah wah open wah food business and a clothing business because I believe you need fi eat everyday and you need fi wear clothes. And I wah sell clothes from baby to old people.”
Only three months later, however, Devon Bailey was involved in a near fatal traffic accident on the George Price Highway, while on his way from Western Paradise to a court hearing in Belize City. Police are now seeking to establish a motive for his murder on Friday night.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood
“Like I said, we are looking at several angles. We are not ruling out any. If it is gang-related that will be relayed to you. If it is not, whatever the motive is, that will be relayed to you.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
