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Man dies in police custody
posted (September 12, 2011)
A man died in police custody on Sunday morning - but police say that the death of Elston Young also known as Elston Leopold Gentle - was not their fault.

Young was beaten down by neighbors in Mahogany Heights on Friday as they tried to subdue him because he was relentlessly stabbing his common law wife, Yvonne Smith.

He ran off, and was found on Sunday 36 hours later. Mahogany Heights Police took him into custody at 6:45 am pending charges of attempted murder. He was transferred to Hattieville and then Belize City - where he was sent to the hospital because he looked to be in a state.

He was seen by a doctor, and sent back with police, where he died at 10:20 am, right outside the Queen Street Station. It is a complicated story and fingers can point in all directions, not least of all, to the KHMH. We tried to get the whole story.

This is the Mahogany Heights home where Elston Gentle, also known as Elston Young attacked his common law wife Yvonne Smith on Friday night after 10:00. A dash of sand covers the area where she was being stabbed in the yard.

This neighbor told us what he saw.

Voice of: Neighbor
"When I look in their yard I see this man on top of Ms. Yvonne stabbing her. So I call out saying that that man is killing that lady and at that time my father-in-law grab a piece of stick and he went to whap the man to try to get him off the lady, but instead of he getting off the lady - he went after my father-in-law with a stabbing motion to try to stab him also. So he (my father-in-law) ran out of the way and then I tried to lash him."

Monica Bodden "Was it a big stick that he was using?"

Voice of: Neighbor
"It was a nice piece of stick. The stick break and then this man look at me now and he came to me to try to stab me also, so I ran out of the way."

Monica Bodden
"When you all lash this man with the stick, did he stop stabbing Ms. Yvonne?"

Voice of: Neighbor
"He didn't stop at all. The man never stops. When I lash him, he just stop for a little moment and he look at me then he just continues stabbing her in her head and her neck."

"When he went back to stab this lady I try get out of the way completely because I thought that he had a gun on him."

They followed him -but he disappeared into the bushes. He was found three miles away in Sunday morning at 6:45 by police:

Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Mr. Gentle was detained by Mahogany Heights police. He was escorted to Hattieville Police Station and then to Belize City. When Mr. Gentle arrive at the Queen Street Police Station, our sergeant; the executive duty officer at that time refuse to accept him into police custody because he saw a visible injury in Mr. Gentle's head. He was escorted by the same officers that escorted him from Hattieville to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where he was seen by Dr. Gonzalez who treated him and classified his injury as wounded and release him back into police custody. Mr. Gentle was being escorted to the Queen Street Police Station and unfortunately he collapse before entering the building at the entrance in the compound."

That's where he died and his sister - who asked us to conceal her identity - blames police because she says his feet were broken.

Voice Of: Ann Young, Sister of Deceased
"How did he walk from Mahogany Heights to mile 31. It must the policemen and the man that caught him beat him as they were bringing him. Plus he had 3 stab wounds to his back. I just came from the morgue and I saw him."

Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"So far it wouldn't suggest that these officers had any reason to inflict any means of violence him as we can understand from the observation made by the executive duty officer. Mr. Gentle appeared to be weak, probably from the exhaustion being out there from Friday night and he wasn't found until Sunday, so I wouldn't be in a position to say that maybe our officers did or didn't. But I know that from the physical appearance the duty officer did exactly do what he was supposed to do and afford Mr. Gentle immediate medical attention."

"Whether or not he was afforded it by the institution that he was taken would be up to the medical officer to answer but I know in all honesty my officers did everything that they could have done and if you go to the hospital and the doctors are saying that you are well enough to return to your normal environment - who are we as police officers to question what a medical officer has said or certified."

And while the post mortem will show what killed him, today Elson Young's sister noted that he brother had just come out of jail earlier this year after serving 5 years for brutalizing Lorna Wade:

Voice Of: Ann Young, Sister of Deceased
"Well for me I feel bad because I am a woman. Yes my brother have a problem with woman. Before he came out of jail I told him that if you know you cannot live with a woman then don't take any. It came out that it happen this way. he and the lady start to live together; they were boyfriend and girlfriend and it happen this way. I am sorry, but I cannot do anything to that. It already happen. But in my point of view, they shouldn't have done him what they did to him. They should have call the police and let them take him to the station and charge him and have him spend time again."

"I want someone charge. If it is the policeman or whosoever did it, have them face justice because there are other ways to hold someone before you kill him with a stick. He is not a snake, he is not an animal."

Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"If in the event the cause of death was because of the injuries that they had inflicted to Mr. Gentle; that would be a decision for the DPP and not for the police department."

The 51 year old Gentle had four children. The KHMH Press Officer did not respond to our request for a comment about why he was released so quickly.

As for the woman whom he was stabbing, Yvonne Smith, her injuries have not been listed to us - and she declined our request for an interview. We do know that she is in the KHMH recovering.

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