Yesterday, between 5 and 5:30 p.m., a police chase in Ladyville led to an innocent woman being shot and the suspect, wanted for questioning, to enter a yard belonging to Minister Michael Hutchinson, the current Belize Rural Central area representative, at #217 Partridge Street, Mitchell Estate.
The suspect’s name is Michael Arnold, also known as “Crazy Crip,” and it was reported that he was wanted for questioning because information reached the Ladyville police that he was planning to commit a crime.
As Arnold ran through the yard and hopped the fence into #218 Partridge Street, one of the policemen in pursuit of Arnold opened fire with a shotgun. The pellets from the cartridge entered the house of the Bainton family. The pellets tore into the stems of several trees and a number entered the side door of the house, going through a bedroom wall.
Lorna Bainton, a wife and mother, was getting ready to take a bath and passed by the bedroom wall, walking right into the path of the shotgun pellets. Three of the pellets hit her in the right leg.
The family says that the policeman who shot Mrs. Bainton didn’t stop to render aid, even though family and friends who were in the area shouted at him, informing him what had happened. Aside from Mrs. Bainton, there were two other adults in the house at the time of the shooting.
The policeman kept in pursuit of Arnold, who ran through the yard and jumped over another fence, running across Pigeon Street into #182 Parakeet Street.
Eyewitnesses say that Arnold ran across Parakeet Street into a yard at #180, where he was finally caught and handcuffed against the wall of an unfinished building in the yard, but not before he was shot, the pellets grazing his left arm.
Amandala spoke with the outraged Bainton family about the incident, and they told us that the story didn’t end there. Mrs. Bainton’s daughter told us that it was Minister Hutchinson’s brother who took Mrs. Bainton to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. It was there that they saw Arnold being treated for his gunshot wound in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital.
The daughter told us that when Arnold saw that Mrs. Bainton was shot, he said, “What? Dah Mams get shat?”
The daughter said that Arnold began to try to escape from police custody, because he was not handcuffed while in the hospital. Arnold allegedly punched one of the officers in the face and tried to wrestle his firearm from him, but he was subdued only after several officers pulled out their firearms and pointed them at Arnold in a crowded ICU, thus frightening all the patients and families in the area.
The Bainton family is upset about the whole situation. Mrs. Bainton said that three of the pellets penetrated her right leg and that the doctor has only managed to take out one so far. According to her, the doctor said he refuses to take out the other two immediately because it will cause Mrs. Bainton severe discomfort and pain.
They are especially upset because there are several toddlers that run around the house and they are usually around at the time that Mrs. Bainton was shot. They said that these children could have been severely injured or killed by such reckless gunfire from the police.
It was reported that Arnold had only a kitchen knife in his hand at the time that the police decided to open fire, which begs the question if it was necessary to use that much force against him.
The family was also worried about children and bystanders who usually congregate at the basketball court and park situated very near the building by which Arnold was apprehended. They felt that these people could have been injured or killed by stray bullets if Arnold had managed to reach as far as the basketball court.
The Bainton family said that the commanding officer at the Ladyville Police Station informed them that the officer who shot Mrs. Bainton has indeed confessed to doing so, and that an internal investigation is to be conducted on the officer, so his name cannot be disclosed. They said that the commanding officer also told them that he is displeased with this officer because the force has trained officers what to do in these situations, which is to fire warning shots before aiming at suspects, and that they must use discretion when civilians are in the area, so that they do not become victims of stray bullets.
Police, in a late press release tonight, say that the reason they moved to capture Arnold was because they received information, at 5 that evening, that he was outside Cynthia and Ryan Lozano’s house on Mirage Road, Ladyville, threatening to kill them. The police also provided information that the weapon used to shoot both Arnold and Bainton was a Mossberg pump 12 gauge shotgun.
Amandala spoke with Minister Hutchinson via phone. He said that it was unfortunate how the event played out as it did yesterday evening. He said that he understands that in the “heat of battle,” some decisions were made that were questionable.
He also expressed regret that Mrs. Bainton was shot and that stray bullets flew in the area as they did, and that he was displeased that the officers didn’t use the proper restraint needed for a neighborhood such as this one.
Hutchinson said that he knows that Mrs. Bainton’s grandchildren run around the area playing, and his children play in the area where Arnold ran, so it could have just as easily been his children or Mrs. Bainton’s grandchildren who were hit.
He told Amandala that he suspects the reason that the chase began was because information had reached Ladyville police that Arnold, who seems to not be afraid of prison, was in the process of trying to commit murder. He said that he thinks the reason the chase took so long was because Arnold knows all the back, bushy areas, while the police were in vehicles trying to track him.
It was reported by eyewitnesses that this is not the first time that the accused officer had fired his weapon in the area.
Witnesses say that this is not the first time that Arnold has had a run-in with the law over serious crimes allegedly committed. They say that Arnold, said to be mentally unstable, has been in and out of prison, so they are worried that the authorities would have such a person walking around freely.
Allegations by witnesses are that this chase started in an area of Ladyville known as “Japan,” which is estimated to be more than three-quarters of a mile away from where Arnold was finally caught. Witnesses say Arnold was on a bicycle, which he reportedly left behind in Minister Hutchinson’s yard, along with a knife he had on him.