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Today, our news team went looking for answers and found out that Bonner, with no known gang ties, may have been killed simply because of the friends he kept:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
34 year-old Marlon Bonner was gunned down here inside the Faber's Road Basketball Court. Yesterday evening at around before 5 o'clock, he was waiting for his opportunity to play ball with the other neighborhood young men, something that was part of his daily routine. He sat under this tree, and that's when, according to eyewitnesses, a lone gunman came through the gate.

Those who spotted assailant reportedly instructed Bonner to run, since the gunman set his sights on him. But, it appears that he wasn't the least bit threatened, or concerned that he might be the target, since he was not known to have any enemies. That gave the gunman - said to be without any disguises - enough time to crank his weapon and open fire on Banner. He was injured multiple times to the back, the head, and the chest, gunshot wounds which killed him on the spot.

ACP Chester Williams - OC, Eastern Division South
"What we have gathered so far is that Mr. Bonner was playing basketball on the basketball court as he normally does every Sunday, when a gunman came and approached him and fired shots at him which resulted in his demise."

Today, his workplace, Belize Tractor Parts, hung a black bow in his memory, and they had only good things to say about his work ethic after 7 years on the job. That doesn't exactly fit with the violence which cut his life short, so what do police believe the motive to be?

ACP Chester Williams - OC, Eastern Division South
"At this time we have not been able to determine a motive and I must state that from our investigation and from what we know, Mr. Banner is not a member or is not affiliated in any gang. So, I do not want anyone to be out there saying that he is affiliated with gang and it is gang related. We do not think it is gang affiliated. We are investigating to see if there is - if we can arrive at a motive as to what have led to that unfortunate incident yesterday. We know who the gunman is and the difficulty that we always encounter is people who witness these incidents and are reluctant to give their statements. That is our difficulty where we are at this time. Our investigation will continue. We'll will try our utmost best to see if we can get statements of people who are around so that we will be able to institute criminal charges for the murder against the gunman. So, yes the information that you have obtained is what we have also gathered and we are looking for that individual who has been described to us as the gunman."

Reporter
"Sir from your knowledge you said you know who the gunman is. Does that then give you a clue as to the motive, is the gunman perhaps affiliated with any gang?"

ACP Chester Williams - OC, Eastern Division South
"Well the gunman yes is affiliated with a gang, but not just because the suspect is affiliated with a gang means the victim must also be affiliated with a gang as well. So, as I have said before that from what we know Mr. Banner is not affiliated with any gang. He is a hard working Belizean like many of us are. We know that yes people might feel a bit reluctant to go and play ball on the basketball court because of what took place yesterday, but at the end of the day I think it will come to pass and people will eventually go back. It's a popular basketball court and it is used by these young men who lives along the boulevard. It's a place where they go and recreate and it is just so sad to see that people could be recreating having fun and some idiot will just come from nowhere and just take their lives away. It is a very sad state of affair and that's the reason why I'm hoping that we will be able to get evidence against those persons responsible and take them before the court."

We're told that though he did not associate with any gang, he did have friends who are believed to be gang affiliates. It is suspected that this might be the reason he was targeted. As you heard police say they have 2 main suspects, the gunman, and the man who acted as his look-out. Investigators are currently looking for these men.

We approached his family for an interview but they told us that they are unable to give any comments at this time. They did tell us that Bonner was taking care of his mother who is ailing. He leaves behind a wife and 3 girls, ages 4, 6 and 10 years old.