And then, Homicides #3 and 4 happened on Sunday night and early this morning, one in Belmopan and one in Belize City. Belmopan Cops aren't sure that 17 year-old Kevin Vasquez was murdered yesterday, but this morning's early street slaying of 32 year-old Mervin Underwood leaves no uncertainty.
It happened at around 7 this morning right at the foot of the Pound Yard Bridge on the corner of West Canal and Cemetery Road. That area is very busy in the mornings with commuters going to and for the Novelos Bus Terminal. That didn't stop a brazen gunman who executed Underwood and ran off before police first responders arrived.
Daniel Ortiz reports:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
The friends and co-workers of 32-year-old Mervin Underwood were unable to process what they were seeing. He was killed in broad daylight, in a crowded area. Still, it happened, and eyewitnesses tell us that the gunman moved stealthily. He was dressed in a long sleeve shirt, long pants, and a shirt used to cover his face.
That gunman used the element of surprised and pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot Underwood twice. He went down, and our sources say that the assailant took the opportunity to stand over him, fired 3 more shots for good measure. He then ran off, escaping the quick responding police as though he was never there.
Underwood was left to expire on the ground on the ground, bystanders trying hard to make sense of the fact that a man was just killed in their presence.
Investigators are doing their own inquiries as well, but the case is very recent, with no real legwork done as yet:
Raphael Martinez - Police Press Officer
"Police were informed of gunshots being fired in the vicinity of Roger's Stadium. When police went to the scene they saw a male of dark complexion who was identified later as 32 year old Mervin Anthony Underwood, laying in the vicinity of the Pound Yard Bridge apparently dead with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Again, he was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where his body awaits a post mortem examination as the investigations continue."
Though it was a brazen morning shooting, it was executed with precision, and so the investigators are facing tough challenges to solve it.
Supt. Hilberto Romero - OC, CIB Belize City
"The murder this murder this morning, the deceased was a family member to a person from the Yabra area. That is all that we have and again we are recording statements of that case and see if we can come up with any suspects."
Underwood was an employee of the CISCO street work projects, and he may have been waiting for the "Chocolate" bus, seen in the footage, which arrived a few minutes after he was gunned down. He had been working there for three years. As his work history suggests, he was not known as a troublemaker, but he is the brother of a prominent personality from the Southside Gangsters - and police believe that is why he was targeted.
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