And another Belize district family is in the throes of grief tonight – after their loved one passed away on Sunday. Jamil Richardson was shot in Belize City on Thursday March 28th, the night before Good Friday. He was left paralysed from the waist down by a gunshot to the neck. Since that time, his family had been fundraising to have him visit a physiotherapist, but on Saturday, his worsening condition took a sharp downturn and he had to be hospitalized. 24 hours later, he was dead. His sister told us today that the family is wracked by grief for this needless loss of life.
Tanisha Chavez - Sister of Jamile 'Cash' Richardson
"Sunday morning he was still talking good, he was arguing that the doctors wanted to scrape his bed so he didn't want them to touch it. An hour after that he just stopped talking, only his hands were moving and that the doctors said that they gave him up. That's very devastating because about 4:00 she called for me to go over there at the hospital again and when I went there he was fighting, he's a strong person. He wanted to fight it but he was tired and he needed to rest."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you all have any idea what caused his death, was it the infection from the bed sores?"
Tanisha Chavez
"I think it was the bullet poisoned him. The doctor said that if the bullet lodged on a bone behind his spine the bullet could have poisoned that bone."
Jules Vasquez
"Since that shooting, it's been an incredible change in your life."
Tanisha Chavez
"Very because 'Cash' was a very hard working young man. I just saw this person an hour ago riding around on his bicycle and in the other hour he got shot, can't move and can't do anything for himself. That was a hole in everybody's stomach around here. His entire family was just broken down."
Jules Vasquez
"They took his life for nothing really."
Tanisha Chavez
"Yes and we still haven't gotten anything out of this matter. The person or persons that did this know that they probably went around there to search for different persons and they caught the wrong person. I don't know what their idea was but they tore this family apart, they tore the kids apart from their dad - he was loving, my niece - his one and only daughter can't handle this and his two songs can't take this any at all. We're trying to comfort them but it isn't enough because he's not a gun man that is going around killing - he's a hard worker and they took away a lot from this man's family."
Police have now upgraded the shooting to a homicide investigation, which continues.
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