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Was it an old beef that had caught up with him, or old habits he was trying in a new place? That's what Daniel Ortiz tried to find out today.

Daniel Ortiz reporting When we arrived at his house this in the Salvapan area, the wife of 31 year old Richard Russell was trying to cleanse their home of the large volume of blood he lost.

And just as they were having difficulty getting the stains out of their possessions, so too will they have a hard time removing the stain of the violent end which he met in front of his family.

Whoever did it was remorseless and highly efficient because that person took him out through the window of his bedroom in the presence of his wife and 3 children.

Voice of: Andrea Russell - Sister of Deceased
"Around 9:45a.m. my brother got home and he got inside and took off his clothes and he left on only his boxers and started taking out his breakfast. He heard someone calling for him from outside saying 'Richie' and they came to the front window and he told them go to the side window. Then he told my sister in law to check who was calling for him and she told him to check for himself because she was already lying down and that he was the one they came to see. He went and as he opened the window they shot him."

Reporter
"Where did he get shot?"

Voice of: Andrea Russell
"In his mouth because he blocked his face with his hand and it went through his hand and into his mouth and through the back of his head."

When he got hit, he didn't die instantly. It was the massive blood loss which claimed his life much later on.

Voice of: Andrea Russell
"When he got shot he started walking up and down. He wasn't really bleeding a lot so my sister in law took the towel and put it on his mouth and he got the phone to call 911 and he put down the phone and went to the bathroom and turned on the shower because he wanted to bathe. He turned back and came out and he walked back in the bathroom and that was when he collapsed on the ground and he wasn't dead he was only weak. Then my sister in law held him and told him that she will go and meet the police and she made her two sons hold and talk to their father for him to stay up. She went to look for the police and by the time she came back he had already died."

The tragic situation was made worse because this wife and children were there from the time it happened until the time he took his last breath. During that time, they were helpless.

Voice of: Andrea Russell
"She was on the bed and he was against her when he got shot, she smelled the gun powder. My oldest nephew climbed into the ceiling, the mid size one went under the bed and the three year old was vommiting and stool on himself and he was trembling."

While his family truly wants to know why the gunman did it, they suspect it was connected to threats he was receiving.

Reporter
"Why would someone want want to kill your brother?"

Voice of: Andrea Russell
"I have no idea, I wish I knew but I don't know anything."

Reporter
"Has he relayed anything to your sister in law that he was being threatened or anything of this sort?"

Voice of: Andrea Russell
"They didn't threaten him direct but he heard rumors in February that they wanted to kill him and that he should look out because someone would kill him and he was watching himself up until the other day he notice nobody came around so he gave it up and they came unexpectedly."

This is the second time that gun violence has visited Russell's family.

Voice of: Andrea Russell
"My youngest brother Randy Coye - they kidnapped him a Friday night and killed him and threw him in the Cemetery behind one of the graves. We didn't find him until the Monday morning badly decomposed, we had to bury him right away."

Daniel Ortiz
"I understand also he moved away from Belize City to get away from this sort of thing and it came and followed him here."

Voice of: Andrea Russell
"Yes he moved from Belize because if he was a bad person and wanted problems then he would have stayed and faced the problem but he moved away to protect his family and himself. He came and changed his life. Nobody would believe that Richard would have been a gardener planting and he used to always tell me he wants to be the 'farmer of the year' because he took care of his plants. He nourishes his plants and take care of them and doesn't want anyone going around his plants that is why my sister in law doesn't deal with it, only him."

At the, end of the month Richard Russell would have been 32. He was the father of 3 young boys.