A man was shot in Belize City early this morning. At around six this morning, Delone Vernon was reportedly at the corner of Vernon and Sarstoon streets when a gunman opened fire releasing as many as ten shots.
Vernon - who is an employee of Youth For The Future - survived and was taken to the KHMH for emergency surgery. When we checked on him, he was recovering from that surgery.
You may remember Vernon because he appeared on an I am Belize Profile in August of last year. He explained that he grew up in a gang environment and turned his life around.
He was shot up just one block from that troubled area today - where he explained the gang dynamics:...
Delone Vernon
"I grew up at the back of WASA where everybody call - most people know the area as PIV from I was like 2 years old. At that time when I was younger that was the whole feel and centre of the gang bang world you would called "Bloods" between PIV and Bakatown. Bakatown was on the side of the civic centre and PIV was behind WASA. Most people from Bakatown would come to hang out at PIV and everybody would meet up at the bridge right where my family resides. We live around the bridge area where all the gang bangers hang out. It's not like something where you didn't want fit in - it's just something where you grew up around - in front it. You go to school and come back and you meet everything the same way."
"Right now where I am heading in my life is like a new place - a new me. Only, that I used the other little things back in the past to help upgrade me. Right now where I am heading is that I expect to be this person where in 5 years' time I will have my own counselling group and I will make a change in Belize."
Vernon is in a stable condition at the KHMH.
And while Vernon has left the gang scene behind - one theory about his shooting is that he may have been targeted just because he is from a neighbourhood associated with the P-I-V gang.
Email
Print