7 News Belize

Eleven Year Old Killed; Fifth Child Casualty Of Gang War
posted (May 22, 2012)
Too often, we return from long weekends with stories of murder and mayhem - but tonight, it is worse than usual: 11 year old Standard Three student, Daniel Matura has been killed in Belize City - the casualty of violent feuding between adults.

But more than just feuding - or what might be called beef - it is a direct result of a murder that happened on Thursday morning - when Daniel's Cousin, 28 year old Kaylon was killed.

We'll have the full story of the events that precipitated this child killing - but we begin first with the story of this profoundly traumatic loss of the fifth child to gun violence in 20 months.

Monica Bodden reports:..

Monica Bodden reporting
The shooting of 11 year old Daniel Matura happened just yards away from where his cousin - Kaylon Matura was gunned down on Thursday morning.

It happened a little after 8:30 on Sunday morning on Central American Boulevard.

As a crowd of spectators lined the area - scenes of crime technicians processed the scene. 8 bullet markers were visible on the scene; 3 of those bullets are believed to have caught 11 year old Matura.

His mother - Marva Mendoza heard the shots from her house on Arlington Drive and ran across Central American Boulevard to see what had happened.

Little did she know, she was about to witness her oldest son lying dead in the grass on the side of the street.

Voice of: Marva Mendoza - Mother of the Murdered 11 Year-old
"At about 7, 7:30, I sat over there in my couch, and I got up - before the accident happened I got up, I walked to the front with a friend. I got enough so I came back home, I sat back in the couch and heard the first shot. I asked if anyone heard gunshots. I got scared because I know my children like to be on the boulevard. So When I got up, I didn't know that I ran into something unexpected. He was on the grass lying down with his face up, and his hand on his chest. I rushed to him and cried out his name, but that was it."

Monica Bodden
"He was shot once to his chest?"

Marva Mendoza
"I saw 2 shots, one in his head, and one his chest."

11 year old Daniel Matura was allegedly shot by mistake by a close family friend who was standing on the sidewalk in front of his cousin, Kaylon Matura's residents.

He was shot to the left side of his chest, right side of his back and left ring finger. He was rushed to the KHMH but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Marva Mendoza
"I don't really know what happened because I was at home. I really can't point fingers at anyone because I didn't see what happened, but I'll leave everything the Father's hands. That is my retaliation. I just want the Father to see that I lost a house already; I lost a child, and I don't know what else I will lose. I wasn't at the scene; I didn't see anyone. I've not been pointing at anyone. Everybody know that I'm a single parent. I am struggling with my 6 children. I don't know why they took away my son, but I'll leave everything in the hands of the good Lord. My son doesn't know how to hold a gun or anything like that. My son doesn't do that kind of thing. Everybody - my son is a person like this. He told me that he would hustle for me, and that he will bring thing for me to eat. Everybody knows him around here. He is a friendly little boy. He was going to school. He attended Sister Clara Muhammad Primary School. Everyone can tell you about him. He is so friendly. He's in Standard 3. Right know if he was here, he would be dancing to 'Bruk it' because that's his favorite song. He would dance, and we would just have fun."

11 year old Daniel Matura was a student of Sister Clara Muhammad Primary School. Today we were welcomed in his Std 3 classroom -where his classmates all gathered around his empty chair - to share their favorite memories of their friend with each other.

That empty chair will be a daily reminder that their classmate's life was cut short as a result of gun violence in their neighborhood.

Lana Ammad - Principal, Sister Clara Muhammad Primary School
"I must say that for the most part, the students are taking it in good strides. We have had a couple of our students who it has really impacted, and what we did today, in order to address the issues of how to cope with grief, is that we had an assembly in our Mosque, where we had various speakers speaking with the students in order to assist them in how you go through the grieving process, looking at all the various emotional changes and how you should cope with it. So they had that exercise this morning, and it was very therapeutic. After we were finished that, the students were able to go into smaller groups, and some of these people came in to assist. They were able to meet with them in small groups and the children had a better chance to speak out about what has happened, what has been happening, and what they think needs to be done, because it is too much. What we are getting from them is that it's too much; this is one too many, and it has finally hit home here in our school. And while it is difficult, what we try to do is to assist our students in looking at the big picture. There must have been a reason why this happened, and there is a reason why God allows things to happen. We try to keep things into perspective, and while we are going through the grieving process, we are trying to look at the big picture and see what we can do with this that God has allowed us to be going through at this moment. So, with that, we made a decision this morning, and it was a unanimous decision. All the children, the management, the teachers, the guests - the volunteers who came in to assist, decided that we are going to do a march tomorrow, in order to show our - not just our displeasure at what is happening - but also to show that we want some changes. We demand some changes to happen because we cannot continue like this. We are losing too many of our children to this nonsensical violence that is going on."

The theme for tomorrows march for peace is "From Truce to Peace".

Lana Ammad
"One of our brothers came up with that theme, which I think is very appropriate right now, because the Government has made this Gang Truce deal with the gangs. So we want to move it a step further, from truce to peace. We need peace, so we are trying to initiate that from our little school, trying to send that message out that we are in support of that. We're trying to encourage our students not to think down the line of violence, to think along the lines of peace, and how we can make things better. That is what our purpose for this march tomorrow, and the activities today are in line with."

Monica Bodden
"And the march starts at what time?"

Lana Ammad
"The march starts tomorrow at 9 in front of our school. We'll go down Central American Boulevard toward Queen Charlotte Street, and then we'll go up to Cumberbatch Field, into Kraal Road, down into Penn Road, back into the Boulevard, and end off at our street."

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