Four people were murdered in 20 hours in Belize City this weekend. It is a record, and the worst kind.

Four people were murdered in 20 hours in Belize City this weekend. It is a record, and the worst kind. Even more worrying is that three of those people were genuinely killed for no reason, collateral damage in a gang war that now seems to be between gangs and the police.
It's literally crazy! We start with a listing of the casualties:

On Saturday morning at 5:00, 44 year old Joe Hamilton, a well-known bar-b-que vendor was shot down at the corner of South and Plues Streets. He was not far from his home on Wagner's Lane when a gunman shot him seven times, three times to the head, one of those shots coming after he was already on the ground.

And then on Saturday afternoon at 1:20, a two blocks over on King street near its corner with Euphrates Avenue, a female Chinese grocer, 32 year old Yan Ying Chen, was in her grilled store when she was shot to her shoulder and back. She died shortly later at the hospital.

An hour and a half after that on Faber's Road, another female Chinese grocer was shot - again, behind an iron grill. 37 year old Fei Lan Wu, was shot in the lower back and died three hours later while undergoing surgery.

And then ten hours later, at 12:30 am, 39 year old contractor Abner Rodriguez was found dead on 7th. Street in the King's Park Area. He had been severely chopped.

Four murders in 24 hours, a staggering toll of crime - and it has left this community reeling. None more so than the Chinese, as two innocent female storekeepers were killed for no apparent reason; it is not even known if it was a robbery attempt.

Today, the Chinese community reacted by staging a national shutdown of all businesses. Now, that was done just 7 months ago when teenager Helen Yue was killed - but this time the usually quiet community backed it up with aggressive direct action.

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