Gang War among Rival Groups in South Side Continues

Two weeks in a row, there were double fatalities in shooting incidents in the Kraal Road area of south side Belize City. The most recent, which occurred on the morning of August first, ended with police shooting dead a sixteen-year-old, who moments earlier had shot and killed Matthew Gutierrez. An internal investigation by the Professional Standards Branch of the Belize Police Department is underway to determine whether the fatal shooting of Shamar Nicholas was justifiable by the responding officers.  ComPol Chester Williams says that the increase in gun violence in that particular area is due to gang war between three rivalling groups.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“We do have serious conflict between the South Side, the Kraal Road and the Supal Street gangs and those are the three groups that are creating the problem in that area. We have put in place checkpoints, we have put in place additional patrols with a view to ensure that we mitigate these occurrences. But as you would know, the criminals do monitor the movements of the police and so when the police go one area, they go and operate in another area. And it is really sad to say with what happened over the weekend, the sixteen-year-old went to look for somebody and that person that he went for, he could not find that person and so he executed anybody. That is so sad and it happened that the police were right in the area. And as he was riding off, he saw the police, he shot at the police and the police returned fire and the result was what it is. It is extremely sad. I ask the question: where was the parent of that child? And these are things that the society needs to speak about.”