7 News Belize

Justin Hyde Killed, Was He a Rapper or a Gangster?
posted (October 10, 2017)
So, while Jason Almendarez is clinging to life at the KHMH tonight, he's the latest shooting victim, but the latest murder victim in the city is 22 year-old Justin Hyde, a resident of the Jane Usher Boulevard area.

Hyde was a very talented rapper and musician. But like so many of the at risk youths living in gang territory, he was pulled into the street life. Last night, a shooter waylaid him and fatally injured him a short distance from his house.

Our news team went looking for answers today, and Daniel Ortiz took a closer look at the life and past of the man who went by the stage name "Et Dan". Here's that story:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
Last night around at around 9:16, 22 year-old Justin Hyde, a resident of the Jane Usher Boulevard area, was shot here at the corner of Curl Thompson Boulevard and Levi Slusher Street.

He was in the company of 2 other young men, and while on his way, somebody opened fire on the 3 of them. He was the only one hit.

It happened a few blocks from his house, and his mother told us that she and her older son heard the attack playing out. Unfortunately, it was her youngest son that was shot in the back.

He was rushed to the KHMH, and about an hour later, he died from massive internal bleeding.

The character and personality of Justin Hyde is not so easily defined. On the surface, he appeared to be an at risk on youth that was constantly in trouble with the law.

Back in April 2015, he was charged for a brazen shooting on Curl Thompson Boulevard in which a family was watching TV.

He was charged with attempted murder, and after police dropped the ball, he ended up getting charged a second time last year.

He was also charged last year along with 2 other men for a shooting. Assistant Police Commissioner Chester Williams came under fire from the get away vehicle that Hyde and others were found in as they were fleeing the scene of the shooting.

But while those were his run-ins with police, there were a few people who didn't write him off as just another troublemaker.

Dianne Finnegan - Coordinator, Youth Apprenticeship Program
"My purpose is to speak on the Justin Hyde I've worked with over the past couple years, a young man that I've known before this intervention, a young man where I saw so many possibilities in."

"Just as how it is so easy to use an individual's past, or the wrongs that they have done, in order to bring light to who this individual is, for me, what matters, is that he is a human being. A young man, who had potential, but no one saw that."

Indeed, Hyde had a talent for music. He's released music videos for the songs he wrote, teaming up with several times with the Belizean artist, TY.

Dianne Finnegan
"No one saw that he was a musician, that he had mad talent, that could end up somewhere positive. But no one fed into that. They just left that as well, he is not one that is deserving of greatness. So, when the negative overpowered that, that is what we are rejoicing over now, a man has made mistakes in his life, but he wanted opportunities. I have done countless interventions with Justin, as a matter of fact, my son is his friend. And so, they crossed paths at SJC. So, you know he is a young man who wanted something in life, unfortunately, that didn't knock on his door."

What reportedly did come knocking at his door - and regularly too - were the police. Those closest to him say that he lived a life under siege, and without warnings, police patrol and strike teams pulled up on him and his friends for aggressive - and allegedly - brutal encounters. He reportedly tried to keep his children at arm's length to spare them that harassment.

His lyrical contribution to the song called, "Police Chancey", sounds more like a real-life experience, than a hypothetical.

Dianne Finnegan
"When I visited Justin's mom just a while ago, one of the guys approached me, and showed me all of the bruises, not black and blue bruises, but gashes in his skin, done by the police, these are the things that we ought to be speaking about, to prevent another man from lying in a coffin. Is it okay that this happened to this young man because he is from the Jane Usher Boulevard?"

His music also gave another glimpse into his life, and the struggle he faced being a youth living in the Jane Usher Boulevard area, caught up in the street life.

Hyde leaves behind 4 children, the oldest being 3 years-old, and youngest being 3 months old.

He's the youngest of 5 brothers, 2 of which are police officers. His family tell us that after he graduated SJC, he attempted to join the police department during a recruitment intake. He did all the tests, but was denied entry. His family believes that he was disqualified during the screening is due to his brother, Troy Hyde, who's on remand for the murder of Kareem "Robbery" Lopez.

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