The body of a 30-year-old man was found strewn in a drain trough in the Bainsville Area of Hattieville, Belize District, riddled with bullet wounds. Police came upon the body at around 5:55 a.m. on Monday, April 27, 2020. Their investigations revealed that Julian Ebanks was returning to his home when a group of three men approached him. They opened gunfire, hitting his arms, neck, and other parts of his body, and leading to the fatal injuries. Although Ebanks was later rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, he succumbed to his injuries before getting there.
Belize Police is tasked with solving this murder, but this attack might not be as random as it appears. Family members report that Ebanks’s life was threatened weeks before his death. He was charged for an incident in the Mahogany Heights community where he was accused of setting a man on fire, and was remanded for the charge. Just two weeks ago, he was released from the Belize Central Prison and that is when he complained that his life was in danger.
This murder is the first in the country in weeks, bringing a stop to the peace we had begun to enjoy. Relatively, there was little to no gun violence anywhere across the country for weeks and no murders since about March 21 of this year.
