7 News Belize

Eight Year Old Girl Killed
posted (September 13, 2010)
The police rolled out with an impressive show of force in Belize City on the Tenth weekend. On Friday and Saturday, it seemed that everywhere you turned, there were at least two police officers on patrol. And apart from all the extra police that were brought in, police had done as they do every September - they engaged in some unofficial preventative detention - locking up known trouble makers for the long weekend.

It seemed to be working - that is, until the early hours of Sunday morning when there was an almost unprecedented spree of violence in the city. In three and a half hours, four were killed in different areas of the city: the victims include an 8 year old, a 69 year old, a 17 year old and a 25 year old - all killed between 3:45 am and 7:00 am.

It is a frightening surge of violence - and while all the killings are deeply saddening - none pulls at the heartstrings as readily as the case of the 8 year old girl, sleeping in her bed, killed by wild gunfire streaming in through the wall. She never had a chance to even dive for cover. Monica Bodden found out what happened:….

Francine Pitts - Mother
"I jump up this morning, I relive the whole memories. I see Eyannie crying out to me in pain, uttering words that I can't even hear, she is crying for help. She slipped away from me."

It was in this bedroom that 8 year old Eyannie Nunez was sleeping with two of her brothers. The wall -riddled with bullet holes - renders a vivid and terrifying image of what went on early Sunday morning.

Today - Her 11 year old brother showed us where she was sleeping at the time of the shooting. It happened here at number 36 Zericote Street - around 3:45 on Sunday morning. Francine Pitts along with her 4 children were asleep inside their home- when they were awakened by the sound of gunshots.

Francine Pitts - Mother
"I was sleeping in my chair that's when I heard several shots rang out, it never occurred to me then that it's actually my house that the shot was intended for. So I ran to my son, thought he was in his room and call out his name and I ask him if he heard the shots and he said no mommy, I said well get on the floor, so I ran back into his room and that's where I met Eyannie at the foot of the bed."

Monica Bodden, Reporting
Not knowing her 8 year old daughter was shot - Pitts says she rushed into the room to get her off the bed.

Francine Pitts - Mother
"She was there lying so I pick up her and I feel the warmness of her, so I said oh my baby you 'pee' yourself, I said but mommy is going to change your clothes. I put her on her bed in the middle room and when I turn on the light to get an underwear that's when I see the blood gashing from Eyannie."

Eyannie was shot to her left armpit. She succumbed to her injuries a little after 6 o'clock on Sunday morning.

Francine Pitts - Mother
"When the pediatrician came and he went in and the doctor came out to me and they look sad and I scream out and I said NO and ran in the room and that's when I see Eyannie put up her hands to me and say mommy I am ok, but I don't know if it's my vision or if that's what I wanted to see. I came outside with a smile and tell everybody that Eyannie is ok. The doctor followed me and say Ms. Pitts your daughter isn't alive. That's when I went back in and see Eyannie condition, she was lying there, her foot was cold and blue, her tongue'; she had bitten it and it was blue. They wrap up her and I say no I want you to work on my baby because my baby is alive. They say no."

Investigators believe that Pitts's younger brother 23 year old Herman Garbutt might have been the target for Sunday morning's shooting.

Francine Pitts - Mother
"I didn't know about any gun threat. What I got about 3 weeks ago was that they were going to burn down the houses in the yard. But the person that deliver the message to us, I told my cousin to send back a message and tell them that whosoever trouble them don't live in this yard its only me and my 5 children, my oldest daughter is in the states for the holidays. My brother doesn't live here anymore, he moves from here about 3 - 4 months ago. My cousin he live upstairs, I live in the back. I don't know why anyone would want to come and just shoot up my son room not knowing who is in that room. I would never have my brother in this room. I would have never jeopardize my children because from last year 30th March I don't know what transpired to my brother's death but my other brother who have survive it, he have previous run in I think, I don't know if that's the problem, I don't have the answers. We are not even close."

For Pitts and her 6 children - the nightmare has just begun.

Francine Pitts - Mother
"You are not even safe in your own bed. I got to get rid of the beds, I have to get rid of the quilts, I have to get rid of the mattress, I have to redecorate all over; my kids don't even want sleep in a bed, not only their bed here but the bed that they are sleeping now they just don't want to sleep in it."

Monica Bodden
"It's been very hard for them?"

Francine Pitts - Mother
"It's been very hard especially for my son Eyandre, he is the one that was there, he try to keep Eyannie alive. They go to school together, they walk together, and they go to evening class together."

Today this mother is still left in disbelief.

Francine Pitts - Mother
"My daughter was so happy when I took her to the BTL Park. Eyannie was so full of joy, if anyone could have told me that yesterday would have been the last day for Eyannie I would have said no. They came and shoot my home in the mid-morning when we are sleeping. My child was in her bed, she didn't deserve this. Why would anyone? If they have a 8 year old daughter; if they have a 8 years son, a brother, a sister or somebody. If they would have wanted somebody to come and took their 8 year old life away before their eyes. I am a mother; it's so terrifying for the others. My kids can't even sleep at night."

9 bullets entered the home - 4 of them went right through the house. Police say that the man the shooters were looking for Herman Garbutt had been in a fight earlier and was threatened.

According to the family, he moved out of that home three months. It should be noted that Garbutt's brother Ryan Walker was killed May 4th., 2009 when his vehicle was shot up with an M-1.

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