While in the hospital after being shot three times by a Wichita police officer, a Wichita man told a sheriff’s detective that he planned to die when he pulled a gun on officers responding to a domestic violence call, according to a recently released court document.
Jonathan Wesley Belt, 43, was shot in the abdomen, arm and groin, according to the arrest affidavit.
He’s been charged with two counts of aggravated assault on an officer with a deadly weapon and criminal damage to property in connection with the incident in the 1600 block of North Wood, which is northwest of 13th and Tyler.
The arrest affidavit, written by a detective with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the Wichita Police Department shooting, releases new details about the shooting.
Here is what is says:
At 10:03 p.m., a son called 911 after his mother got into a fight with his stepfather after she found him messaging women through a dating app. He started “yelling and screaming after being confronted and then punched” a bedroom door.
He left the house, but before doing so multiple children there heard him say he would burn it down.
The son called 911 again when Belt returned to the home at 11:05 p.m.
Arriving officers were notified that Belt had made comments about suicide by an officer in the past. Belt was also known to carry a gun and had been in a “physical altercation with law enforcement a few months ago,” the affidavit says.
Belt came to the front door.
“What’s going on officers?” he asked after stepping onto the porch while holding the door open.
Officers planned to arrest him for “misdemeanor domestic violence criminal damage to property.”
As an officer got closer, Belt said: “This is as far as you go.”
There were at least five Wichita officers at the home.
As an officer went to grab him, Belt turned his body to the right while reaching to his waistband behind his back.
Another officer shouted “gun.”
One officer placed himself between Belt and the other officers and tried to “push (Belt) back into a wall in the house, in an attempt to to prevent a gun from being pulled out.”
The officer fell to the ground and heard two loud pops.
The officer had “blood on his hands and clothing” and thought he had been shot by Belt. The officer thought he was “going to be shot in the back of the head by (Belt) as he was standing over him.”
But the officer hadn’t been shot.
Belt had been shot by an officer who fired three rounds.
Officers started to render aid to Belt, who was then taken to Wesley Medical Center.
Belt told the detective he used marijuana and methamphetamine, the affidavit says, and that he didn’t remember some of the night, “but knew he grabbed and drew his gun.”
