A young father who had been given a second chance to rebuild his life has been killed in a brazen close-range shooting at a popular public market in Belize District, leaving his employer, fellow vendors and the broader community reeling and demanding urgent action to improve public safety.
Twenty-seven-year-old Tyrel Robinson was gunned down shortly after 5 p.m. Monday by an unidentified armed attacker at Jun’s Meat Shop, where he had worked for six months inside Michael Finnegan Market along West Collet Canal. His employer, Aaron Castillo, who gave Robinson the job after seeing he wanted to turn his life around, spoke publicly this week about the shock of the violence that unfolded right in front of him.
Castillo recalled that he immediately recognized Robinson did not want to remain trapped in a cycle of street life when they first met. “I was watching him, and he did not look like any ordinary street boy,” Castillo said. “I gave the man a chance because he looked like he wanted to change his life.” In the six months Robinson worked at the meat shop, Castillo described him as a friendly, hardworking staff member who treated every customer with respect and was well-liked by regulars who visited the market.
The attack unfolded as Castillo was serving another customer, he said. He heard the ring of gunfire, spun around, and realized Robinson had been hit. Fearing that the shooter would target bystanders next, Castillo fled the immediate area to get to safety. Robinson was rushed by emergency responders to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, the country’s main public medical facility, but doctors were unable to save him, and he died from his gunshot wounds.
The killing is not the first time Robinson has been targeted: he survived a separate assassination attempt in 2023, when two men on bicycles opened fire outside his home on Bocotora Street. Court records also show Robinson had a prior run-in with the law in 2019, when he was arrested and charged with theft, attempted theft and property damage following an incident where he allegedly snatched a gold chain from Magistrate Tanisha Smith near the Michael Finnegan Market.
To date, investigators have not released a confirmed motive for the Monday shooting, leaving the community with unresolved questions about why Robinson was targeted. In the wake of his death, vendors who operate stalls inside the market have banded together to call for sweeping changes to public security at the facility. They are demanding increased patrols by law enforcement and stricter screening for all people entering the market.
Castillo has joined those calls, urging local authorities to deploy armed security guards at every entry gate to the market and implement a ban on anyone entering while wearing helmets or full face coverings that can hide a person’s identity, a common tactic used by attackers in public street violence to avoid being identified. The shooting has underscored persistent concerns about violent crime in public communal spaces in Belize, and left a 27-year-old father’s family without a breadwinner as the community mourns a young man who was actively working to build a better life.