The Tribune

A MEMBER of the Bahamas team for next weekend’s Carifta Games has been arrested in the US after an incident involving a gun.

Stephen Newbold, a quarter-miler, was arrested along with fellow Florida State 4x400 relay runner Ronell J Mance after an early morning poolside shooting incident.

A police report said that the two were arrested after shots were reported being fired at an off-campus apartment complex in Tallahassee, Florida, at about 3:30pm yesterday.

Police were called, and arrived at the scene.

Newbold initially ran away from two pursuing officers, but was soon located by a police dog, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The affidavit said Newbold was arrested for discharging a firearm in public and resisting without violence. Mance was arrested for unauthorised use of an ID and resisting without violence.

He had Newbold’s ID which had an altered date on it, which is a third degree felony under Florida law.

Tallahassee police spokesman David Northway said resisting without violence is a misdemeanour.

Newbold told police that Mance was using the card to get into a local bar.

One witness told police that she heard two gunshots and when she looked out of her window she saw a male, who was later identified as Newbold, shoot a handgun two more times in the direction of the swimming pool.

The witness said she heard the shots and saw the muzzle flashes each time. Another account in the affidavit said the shots were aimed at a person in the pool area.

Authorities did find two federal 380 auto shell casings in the area where the witness said she saw the gun being fired.

No one was injured.

Newbold, 20, won gold at the 2011 World Youth Games in the 200-meter dash in a career-best 20.89 and established a personal-best 47.12 in the 400-meter dash last spring in his hometown of Nassau, Bahamas.

Mance, who turned 21 Thursday and often goes by his middle name Joshua, was sitting out the season after transferring from Southern Cal.

Two of the other three males questioned by police at the scene were also members of the school’s track and field team, which annually ranks among the country’s best.

“The students have been suspended from the team effective immediately,” Florida State athletic director Randy Spetman said. “Whether they can return as student-athletes will be determined through our discipline policy and any legal proceedings.”

The university also updated an online advisory it uses to inform its students, faculty and staff about such incidents with a report of the shooting, spokesman Keith Bromery said.

• Team Bahamas coach reacts to news - see Sport.