7 News Belize

A Murder in St. Matthews
posted (December 3, 2012)
We report tonight on the first murder of 2012 in the western village of Saint Matthews. 31 year-old Roylee Young was killed last night at around 9:30 at a bar where he was socializing.

His murder was done execution-style, where the gunman ambushed him from behind. 7News learned today that he had many enemies, one of whom may have targeted him because they suspect that he was an informant for police.

Here's what we found out today:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
The family of 31 old Roylee Young is trying to figure who carried out his execution style killing last night.

He spent the last few minutes at El Pedrigal Shop and bar in the heart of Saint Matthews.

His mother explained off-camera about the little information they know at this point.

Voice Of: Mother of Deceased
"I was at home, I had just went in bed when my niece came and tell me that she understand that my son has been shot. I told her no and she told me that she doesn't know if it's true but that she was going back to find out and return back. I told her okay. She went and returns back quickly and says that she saw him sitting down in the chair where he was shot. She says that he was shot in the back of his head."

"I could not believe it because he came home a little while ago - he came around 7pm last night and he left a bag at the girl that he lived with and he told her that he was coming back right now."

He never did make it back home that night.

It is believed that his assailant snuck up behind him, and shot him in the back of his head.

His relatives suspect that he may have been targeted because he started associating with police officers from Belmopan. They believe that he was an informant to police.

Voice Of: Mother of Deceased
"There are people that didn't like him in this village and because of him being with the police officers from Belmopan - that could be a big problem for them in this village because there are a lot of haters here especially that he was hanging with police officers - they feel that he was taking in reports about people up here. That was a big thing that they had against him."

According to his family, he became a cautious man because he just recently recovered from walking with crutches after he was shot a few months ago.

Voice Of: Mother of Deceased
"He is a person who - if he were down the road all day he would have come home and go back that there, so it surprise me to hear that he was shot down there. The first time they shot him when he and my nephew were coming from up the road - almost reached home they shot him on the highway."

His murder comes as a shock to the family because he changed his life when he got married and became a father

Voice Of: Mother of Deceased
"Growing up in his teens to the age of 20s, he doesn't allow anyone to chance him. He is a nice person but when he takes a drink or two - if you do him something, he will do you back. Everybody already knew he was like that. From then until now he has changed his life a lot. He doesn't have any problem with anybody. We didn't expect that this would happen."

Young was the father of 3 children; the oldest is a 7 year-old boy.

There are a few discrepancies that the family wants cleared up. Firstly, they suspect that his murderer met him standing, shot him in the head, and posed him in a seated position on a plastic chair, before escaping. The reason for this is that scenes of crime personnel had to reach up over 8 feet to recover a bullet from the window of the bar.

Police have done an extensive round up of 6 men from the village for questioning in connection with this murder.

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