BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) It's a first for John Flynn. Erie County's chief law enforcement official discussing a case before an arraignment. But Tuesday's chase and shootout that spanned several areas of Buffalo Tuesday night was a one of a kind case.
"This was 40 minutes of chaos. It was like a movie scene," said Flynn. "You had a defendant shooting out of the driver's side window of his car and officers chasing him."
Three Buffalo Police officers were hit by gunfire. Nine police cars were damaged by bullets.
"It's a miracle that no one else's car got dinged or hit.. That no one else got shot. Unfortunately people did get hurt. Three officers and the defendant was shot three times too."
The suspect, 28 year old Kente Bell will be charged with three counts of
attempted murder of a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon, and
several traffic violations. More charges could be coming.
On WBEN Thursday morning, Flynn clarified confusion over the number of
suspects involved.
"The defendant was driving. That's crystal clear. He had a female passenger
in the front seat. What was in dispute is whether or not there was a third person who was sitting behind the driver. We got that cleared up and there was not a third person in the vehicle."
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joe Gramaglia told reporters Wednesday that
only one person is facing charges. "We have the sole person that we believe is responsible. We are not looking for anybody else," he said.
The female passenger was in the suspect's vehicle for the initial traffic stop
at the foot of Ferry Street. Flynn said as soon as Bell took off, she freaked out
and escaped the vehicle in dramatic fashion.
"Talk about a movie," said Flynn. She literally opened the passenger door and jumped out of the car while it was moving and rolled on the ground, coming to rest at a telephone pole. It was unbelievable," he added. The unidentified woman is not facing charges.
Kente Bell was on probation for a previous charge of illegal possession of a firearm in 2020.
Saying he did not want to taint a case, or prejudice a potential jury, Flynn said he is being cautoius about how much he can say. "I can confirm that he was on probation. I can confirm that he plead guilty to a violent felony. And I can confirm that the probation department recommended probation and the judge gave him probation."
In Bell's prior case, Flynn said probation was an appropriate sentence and not out of the ordinary because it was his first offense.
The first thing Flynn did after Tuesday's wild shootout was file a probation violation against Bell. The defendant is at ECMC recovering from police gunshots as the pursuit came to an end.
Still in the hospital is Officer Joseph McCarthy; he took a round to the lower abdomen. Officers Trevor Sheehan and Christopher Wilson were treated and released.
"Bell is detained right now," said Flynn. "There's someone guarding him at ECMC. Once he's arraigned, I'm going to ask for remand (no bail), along with the probation violation. I'm 99.9% sure that he's going nowhere, (but jail).
