Sint Maarten. Pursuit leads to arresting three persons and confiscating fire arms and money
On Saturday June 7th, at approximately 3 p.m., a police patrol was driving Welfare Road in Cole Bay saw a passing car that was, according to witnesses, involved in a car theft earlier that week. The police officers turned their vehicle around in order to control the vehicle in question.
As the driver of the vehicle was ordered by the police to stop and came to a stand still, a passenger suspiciously jumped out of the vehicle and took-off running. A police officer started a foot pursuit.
During the chase the man climbed over a barbed wire fence and injured one of his arms. Both the officers and the man kept running along the lagoon. At one time the police officers noticed that the man was carrying two fire arms with him. Because he saw these weapons, one of the police officers then fired warning shots ordering the suspect to stop fleeing and to surrender the weapons.
In the vicinity of Carousel, the man seemed to think that the only way out for him was to jump into the water, which he did and he also threw the two fire arms in the water.
The police arrested the 24 year old male suspect from Sint Maarten, in the water. He was first taken to the Sint Maarten Medical Centre for medical treatment. After that, he was taken to the Philipsburg police station.
In the mean time, the two other suspects in the car were arrested by other police officers who came to assist. They are a 28 and 31 year old men, living on Saint Martin. After the arrest the car was searched by the Forensic Department. Members of that department found a large amount of cash in the car. Two cellular phones and the money in question were confiscated.
Coastguard divers were called to the crime scene to search for the weapons. A few minutes after they started their search they found both weapons in the water. The weapons were also confiscated.
The detective department is investigating this case.
