In a devastating repeat of tragedy that has rocked a Belize City family, Helen Samuel is mourning the murder of her second son to gun violence, 12 years after she laid her first child to rest.
On the night of Thursday, May 8, 2026, 29-year-old construction worker Jamal Samuels was fatally shot in the area outside the No. 24 CET construction site in central Belize City. The killing has left his grieving mother struggling to comprehend how her family has once again been torn apart by armed crime.
In an exclusive interview with local outlet News 5, Samuel shared that law enforcement has barred her from viewing her son’s remains as the homicide investigation remains active. According to her account, Jamal had only left the family home that evening to purchase cannabis, with every intention of returning immediately after.
Helen described her son as a homebody who rarely ventured out to socialize, saying, “He not a person who hangs. He was at home by his house. He would roll up the weed and sit down in front of the yard and smoke and drink. I think he just was there at the wrong time because he doesn’t usually go out there.” She told reporters she believes Jamal may have made a quick stop to visit an old friend he had not caught up with in a long time, putting him in the wrong place at the fateful moment of the shooting.
The mother stressed that Jamal had no known conflicts with anyone in the community, adding, “I talked to him yesterday, and he didn’t tell me nothing… He didn’t have any bad arguments with nobody.”
This is not the first devastating loss Helen has endured. Her oldest son, Robert “Bolo” Tracy, was killed in a separate gun-related incident back in 2014. She also previously lost an infant son when he was just 9 months old. Before Thursday’s shooting, Jamal was the oldest of her surviving children. Today, three of Helen’s children have died prematurely, and a fourth remains in police detention pending an open investigation, leaving the grieving mother with no surviving children living free at home.
The killing comes as Belize City continues to grapple with persistent rates of gun violence that have left hundreds of families grieving similar losses in recent years.