Shooting suspect shot repeatedly by police
All was not quiet on North Creek last night as a shootout between two men prompted a police response which led to one of the men being shot several times. News Five was at the scene this morning.
It is not the first time that twenty-six year old Mark Henry has been in trouble with the law, but family members are saying there was no reason for the police to open fire on the young man. According to Carolyn Leslie, Henry’s cousin, the trouble started from around nine-thirty that night when a youth known only to them as “Pipe” came by the house asking for Henry. Leslie said when she told “Pipe” Henry was not at home, the man accused her of hiding her cousin and reportedly told her to just wait to see what happens when he comes back. Leslie said the man, who first came in a car returned thirty minutes later on a bicycle, rode past the house and then up North Creek towards Central American Boulevard. Shortly afterwards, Leslie said gunshots were fired. Sitting inside Archie’s Restaurant at the time was Inspector Eli Salazar who apparently called headquarters for backup. Leslie says while “Pipe” ran away from the scene, Henry managed to get back inside their yard and hid underneath his house. Leslie says she pleaded to the police to let her first try to talk to her cousin into giving himself up, but they refused.
Carolyn Leslie, Cousin
“So when I come, I find all the police vehicle lined off, policeman like, enough policeman, like I no like that. And I ask one of the police if my cousin is in the yard and I could talk to him, at least give me three times to talk to him, to let him come out, cause once I tell him Mark, come out, he will come out and bring anything he has with him. He would come out. But the policeman tell me, we no have no time for that, we will just do what we have to do.”
Leslie says the police then opened fire on Henry who remained underneath the house.
Carolyn Leslie
“After when they shoot him, he bawled out and say I am coming out, I am coming out, I got shot, I got shot.”
Q: “How many of the police officers opened fire on Mark Henry?”
Carolyn Leslie
“I think more than one, more than two, right… more than one, more than two.”
Q: “No reason as to why they fired at him?”
Carolyn Leslie
“No reason that I know of, right. They are claiming to say that Mark fired shot at them, but I don’t know. I can’t tell; I don’t have any information about that.”
According to Head of C.I.B., Assistant Inspector, Simeon Alvarez, because Henry opened fire on the police when they first encountered him at the corner of Currasow Street and Central American Boulevard and because he refused to surrender, the officers had no choice but to fire at the man. However, Leslie claims that after the police shot Henry, he was then beaten.
Carolyn Leslie
“Well all the policemen they come in. And one name “Tiger” come in and with a flashlight started beating him and saying I will kill you, I will kill you. And he just tell them, I can’t do nothing cause you already shot me already and then they haul him out cause it looks like he could not even walk cause he must have gotten shot in his foot. And they just dash him in the vehicle and they took him, right.”
The police then searched the area for several hours but so far have been unable to find the weapon they say Henry used to shoot at them.
Carolyn Leslie
“Up to now they no find no weapon yet. Police searched all through the whole night but as of eleven this morning, they no find any weapon. All they find are their shells that they fired. They no find no shells on Mark, no nothing. And if they want to say if Mark throw the gun in the canal, it’s impossible because there were policemen on both sides of the canal, in our yard and over there. So if he had thrown it in the canal they must have seen and say the boy throw something in the canal.”
Henry, who received shots to his right upper leg, left lower leg, left side of his buttocks and right upper arm, is presently hospitalized at the K.H.M.H. under heavy police guard.
Mark Henry was out on bail in connection with two other shooting incidents, including the wounding of a thirteen year old girl earlier this year. He will now be additionally charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm in public.
