Police have charged a 23-year-old resident of Belize City for the crime of murder. They say that Evian Murrillo is responsible for the shooting murder of 33-year-old Walter Ezekiel Usher which took place on Rio Bravo Avenue in Belize City on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Usher seemed to have been killed in a shooting with suspected gang motive. Police responded to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where they met Usher and 61-year-old Joyce Edwards suffering from gunshot injuries to the body. Edwards, a career educator from the Toledo District, was innocently caught in the crossfire but was not fatally wounded.
Investigations revealed that Usher was socializing in the neighborhood when two men rode up on a motorcycle. One of the two produced a firearm and began to fire indiscriminately. It is believed that Usher was in fact the intended target of this shooting but who was not meant to be hit was Edwards. It is said that she rarely leaves her home of Forest Home Village but was only in Belize City that night to visit a sick family member.
Besides the charge of murder in the case of Usher, Murrillo was also charged for attempted murder, dangerous harm, and use of deadly means of harm upon Edwards. For these crimes, Murrillo was arraigned on Wednesday, April 29, 2020 in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford. No plea was taken and he was remanded to the Belize Central Prison until June 29, 2020.
