The peaceful, tight-knit community of San Antonio Village in Corozal District has been fractured by a sudden, brutal act of violence that has left residents stunned and a family reeling from an unfathomable loss. Forty-one-year-old Deovan Hall never made it home from a village community gathering Saturday night, ambushed and shot to death along a dark, remote stretch of road on the village’s outskirts, leaving investigators searching for answers and his loved ones demanding justice.
Hall had spent the evening at a local village event, and according to his common-law wife Sharlean Robateau, he left the gathering to bring home a favorite local dish—black dinner soup—planning for a quiet night in with his family. He rode home on his bicycle, a routine trip that should have taken mere minutes, but an unknown attacker lay in wait near a local cane field and opened fire multiple times. Neighbors reported hearing the crack of gunshots around an hour before Hall’s family discovered his fate, but by the time first responders arrived on scene, Hall had already succumbed to his multiple gunshot wounds. His bicycle and the container holding his soup were found abandoned just feet from his body.
As news of the shooting spread, Robateau and Hall’s father began a search of the route Hall would have taken home. Robateau told reporters that she and Hall had a shared whistle signal to communicate when he arrived near the house, and that she had spoken to him shortly before he was killed, reminding him to return quickly because their two young children were already asleep. When Hall failed to arrive, the family searched the road and found his bike, slippers and spilled soup abandoned by the side of the path. Following a trail of blood to a nearby coconut tree and plantain patch, Hall’s father discovered his son’s body.
Robateau, who shares two young sons, aged 6 and 8, with Hall, described her partner as a gentle, devoted father who loved spending time fishing and hunting with their boys. She said Hall was a peaceful man who got along with everyone in the village and was always willing to lend a helping hand to neighbors in need. She stressed that she has no idea why anyone would target her husband, and is calling on law enforcement to leave no stone unturned in the investigation to find his killer.
“I don’t know why they did this,” Robateau said in a phone interview with local outlet News Five. “I want justice for him because I don’t think it’s fair to just take away an innocent life and leave two innocent kids fatherless. He was a loving, caring person, and he’ll forever be in our hearts.”
Authorities from the National Crimes Investigation Branch confirmed that responding officers found Hall’s body at the scene with multiple gunshot wounds, and have identified two persons of interest in connection with the killing. Head of the branch ACP Hilberto Romero told reporters that investigators are working to establish a motive for the attack, noting only that Hall had prior arrests for minor, non-violent offenses in the past. The killing has upended life in the normally quiet Corozal District village, where violent crime is a rare occurrence.
Hall is survived by four children, including his two young sons with Robateau. As the family mourns, they hold out hope that investigators will quickly identify and apprehend the person responsible for this deadly ambush, bringing closure to a community that is still reeling from the tragedy. News Five’s Britney Gordon contributed to this report.