7 News Belize

Teen Killed in the Crossfire of City Gang Feud
posted (December 7, 2006)
He was an innocent bystander but tonight a 14 year old is dead, gunned down after he was caught in the cross fire of an ongoing Belize City gang feud. Just before 6 yesterday evening, 14-year-old standard six student Randy Conorquie was at a friend's house at the corner of Banak Street and Magazine Road when gunshots rang out. The teenager tried to run for cover, but instead ran up to the barrel of a gun. Here's what happened.

Hector Conorquie, Father of Deceased
"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

At the wrong place, here on the steps of this house at number 10 Magazine Road, and at the wrong time yesterday evening at around 6:00. That's when gunmen, possibly as many as three of them, came up on the house and opened fire. 14-year-old student Randy Conorquie was shot to the neck, leg, arm chest and wrist. His parents are Hector and Cynthia Conorquie. They were one block away and heard the staccato report of gunfire.

Hector Conorquie,
"My son just went there to play game and when they finished he went outside and helped to fix a bicycle and he was sitting down on the step and then when then there was crossfire shot from both angles."

Cynthia Conorquie, Mother of Deceased
"They were finished playing the game and he was outside dealing with bicycle, he was helping his friend to fix a bicycle and then the shooting start."

Hector Conorquie,
"They jumped down and everybody ducked down but he ran and he ran right into the bullet."

Cynthia Conorquie,
"He is not a person who is usually in things like that so when things like that happen to him, you won't really know what was the real problem or what to do or where to turn because his friend who was with ran. When he ran he thought Randy was behind him so he told Randy to come faster but at that time Randy had already gotten shot and was on the ground."

Hector Conorquie,
"He tried to run from this one to get away but when he ran, he faced the other one who was in the other corner because they came from three different corners, I understand, and that is the next that fired the shots. About fifteen to fourteen rounds we heard from here becuase3 we are only one block away."

After the shooting the gunmen escaped. Two of them on foot, and one on bicycle heading from Banak Street to Lakeview street. Two of them disappeared on Lakeview, while Leonard 'Ghost' Meyers, ran through this empty lot from Banak Street to Cemetery Road. And it's here on Cemetery Road that a passing police patrol team literally happened upon him, gun in hand. 24-year-old Myers opened fire on the police and they returned fire, hitting him in the left ankle, somewhere between Cemetery Road and Fuller's Alley. Still, he scrambled into Fuller's Alley, into this lot, where he scaled this fence and made it into this overgrown lot in Morter's Alley. And that's where police caught him; he had a gunshot to his ankle.

But while police have made that arrest, this father is not confident that charges brought against this man will stick. Past experience has taught him that much.

Hector Conorquie,
"They just go to jail and they come back out again and they go after somebody else so by just going back to jail and going, they will continue to do it because they will be out here again. Spend a little five or ten years and you'll be right out here back to kill somebody else, for what. I just want whosoever in charge to try do better because innocent people are getting hurt and a lotta killing, if notice the only people killing up one another is we black people, black like ourselves we are killing. For what? I don't know for what. It is black killing up one another.

I feel like they should do something about this because innocent people are getting hurt for nothing. Maybe you just go to a friend's house and they want to kill your friend's family and by the time you end up there, you end up being one of the victims. That is exactly what happened to Randy, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time but I feel like they should do something because too much people are getting hurt and one the another night was right ahead there, in Conch Shell Bay. Today I got half day off to go to my work brother's funeral, and now today it is my son."

And this father is most regretful that he was only 14 years old: a child caught in the crossfire of an adult's war:

Hector Conorquie,
"If you come to do somebody something, you shouldn't take it out of the innocent people because that was a 'lil boy. He is fourteen years old yes but he was a 'lil boy. He goes to school, he was in the standard six at Queen's Square School and we were really expecting for him to graduate this year."

He'll never see that graduation now, instead his death has given the community an education on how merciless these streets can be.

Police declined to give interviews on this high profile crime. Prime suspect, 24-year-old Leonard 'Ghost' Myers is under guard at the KHMH after he was shot in the ankle. Meyers asked 7NEWS to come and interview him to get his side of the story, but police said he was not permitted to give interviews.

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