On the evening of September 7, 2026, a brazen fatal shooting shattered the peace of Kings Park, a typically quiet residential neighborhood in Belize City, killing 33-year-old Barry Johnston and leaving 30-year-old Jahsun Tillett recovering in stable condition at Carl Houston Memorial Hospital. Law enforcement officials have launched a full investigation into the attack, with early reports suggesting Johnston may have been tracked to the neighborhood by his attackers before the gunfire broke out.
News Five correspondent Shane Williams reported from the crime scene the morning after the incident, detailing how the violence unfolded. Johnston was visiting relatives at an apartment complex located at the intersection of F Street and 7th Street when the attack occurred. According to Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith, the official timeline investigators have pieced together shows Johnston was speaking to two people seated inside a parked van on the neighborhood street when two male suspects approached on foot and opened fire. The gunmen unleashed multiple rounds before fleeing the area in a vehicle that sped away along 6th Street, leaving Johnston fatally wounded and Tillett injured.
In the hours following the shooting, first responders rushed the injured victim to the hospital, while crime scene investigators and uniformed officers cordoned off the area and began canvassing the neighborhood for evidence. Officers have gone door-to-door to interview residents and request private security camera footage, as Kings Park maintains an active neighborhood watch program with many local residents installing personal surveillance equipment.
The violence has left the close-knit community shaken. Adrian “Danny” Madrid, president of the Belize Justice of the Peace Association and a resident who lives just two homes away from the shooting site, described the fear that has spread through the neighborhood. “My wife heard the gunfire last night; it sounded like a machine gun to her,” Madrid told reporters in an interview. Madrid noted he had turned over his own home security footage to investigators, even though his camera did not capture the attack. “We raise our families here, our kids play on these streets, and we’re all worried about their safety,” Madrid explained. “We’re hoping to work with neighborhood watch, police, and the media to step up security and prevent something like this from happening again.”
Investigators face the immediate challenge of mapping a complete timeline of events: from Johnston’s arrival in Kings Park to the moments before the shooting, the attack itself, and the gunmen’s escape. While no official motive has been confirmed at this early stage of the investigation, law enforcement officials confirm Johnston was a known person to police with a long history of prior run-ins with the legal system.
Johnston’s first documented interaction with police dates back to 2011, when he was charged with burglary for stealing an estimated $14,000 worth of clothing, electrical appliances, and hundreds of standing fans from a warehouse at the corner of King Street and East Canal. Four years later, in 2015, Johnston and two other men faced charges of aggravated assault with a firearm after Delbert Palacio was shot in an incident the men described as accidental friendly fire. The case was ultimately dismissed after Palacio declined to move forward with prosecution.
According to ASP Smith, Johnston’s only prior criminal conviction was for drug trafficking. In 2024, Johnston was questioned by police after his former girlfriend, Jasmine Fortune, was shot outside her home following a domestic dispute between the pair. No charges were ever filed against him in that case.
This was not the first time Johnston had been targeted for violence. In 2013, he was shot in the knee while standing outside the Port Loyola basketball court, and just six months before his death in March 2026, armed intruders broke into his Belama home on Beltex Crescent. Johnston was not present during the home invasion, but attackers assaulted two people inside and stole nearly $16,000 in jewelry and $900 in cash. Two men were charged in connection with that incident, though police have not confirmed any connection to the September 7 shooting.
Investigators say they have already obtained surveillance footage from the national Crime Fusion Center that is helping advance the probe. While reports confirm the weapons used included both semi-automatic and automatic firearms, and that Johnston was clearly the intended target of the attack, core questions remain unanswered: who planned and carried out the killing, and what was the motive behind the attack in a normally peaceful neighborhood? Reporting from Belize City, Shane Williams for News Five.
