Gunshot victim dies after brawl
ARKADELPHIA - Authorities are investigating after a 25-year-old man was shot dead when a fight broke out on Main Street in Arkadelphia.
Arkadelphia police Sgt.
Roy Bethell said Jerome Caldwell was killed in the melee early Sunday. Bethell told the Siftings Herald that Caldwell was apparently a bystander and not involved in the fight that broke out near Dino’s restaurant in Arkadelphia.
Police said Caldwell was shot in the lower back. A friend carried him to a vehicle and drove him to an Arkadelphia hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Authorities said about 200 people fled as officers arrived. Bethell said a group had rented the restaurant for a private party before the fight broke out.
Police said they’ve identified a suspect in the shooting, but no one was immediately arrested.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Woodruff County to get war marker
A Civil War historical marker has been approved for Woodruff County to commemorate the Fitzhugh’s Woods Battle site, the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission announced.
The marker will be placed at the battle site on Arkansas 33, north of Augusta, where Civil War fighting took place April 1, 1864.
The city of Augusta is the marker’s sponsor.
The commission’s Historical Marker Program works with local partners to help tell of events during the 1861-65 Civil War and how the war affected communities in the state.
More information on the marker program is available on the commission’s website at arkansascivilwar150.com.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEYoung brothers die
in Missouri fire
BUNKER, Mo. - Fire officials said two brothers died in a house fire in southwest Missouri over the weekend.
Reynolds County Sheriff Tom Volner said investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the Saturday morning blaze in Bunker.
He said it killed a 3-month-old boy and a 2-yearold boy. A woman and three other children made it out safely. They were treated for burns and smoke inhalation.
Volner said the woman was babysitting the children.
Neighbors told KOLR television station they tried to get to the two boys but couldn’t because of the location of their rooms.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Man’s hearing set in kin’s death
BARTLESVILLE, Okla.
- A judge has set a preliminary hearing for a 21-yearold Bartlesville man accused of killing his grandmother and ransacking her home.
The Examiner-Enterprise reported that Brandon William Capps is due in court Feb. 7 for a preliminary hearing. He was charged with first-degree murder, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, larceny, selling stolen property and knowingly concealing stolen property.
He’s accused in the Oct.
31 death of his grandmother, 81-year-old Clara Jean Hammer. Authorities said Hammer was found dead on her living room floor with abaseball bat by her side. Authorities said her home was ransacked and her furniture was destroyed.
An affidavit alleges that Capps was driving Hammer’s car when he was pulled over by officers.
Capps remains in the Washington County jail on $1 million bond.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESSSuspect arrested in boy’s death
TULSA - A Tulsa man has been charged with vehicular manslaughter in last year’s death of an 11-year-old boy who was struck by a car while riding his skateboard.
Prosecutors filed the charges last week against 31-year-old Abraham McDavid.
He was charged with firstdegree vehicular manslaughter in the Oct. 29, 2011, death of Adrian Hardridge Jr.
Police said Adrian was riding his skateboard when he was struck and killed by a 1997 Ford Crown Victoria.
Prosecutors allege in court filings that McDavid was driving with a suspended license at the time of the fatal collision.
The Tulsa World reported that McDavid was arrested late Sunday. Court records did not list an attorney for him, and he remained in the Tulsa County jail.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMan pointing rifle killed by officers
MIDWEST CITY, Okla.
- Authorities in Midwest City said police shot and killed a machete-wielding man who allegedly pointed a rifle at a police officer.
Police Chief Brandon Clabes said officers were called to a home on Lion Parks Place at about 7 a.m.
Monday on reports of a disturbance. Clabes told The Oklahoman that an officer responded and found a shirtless man holding a rifle and a machete at the home.
Clabes said the man refused to drop the weapons and aimed the rifle at the officer, who then fired several rounds and killed the man.
Clabes said the man who was shot did not live at the house. The investigation is ongoing, but no others were hurt.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Execution stay rejected by courts
OKLAHOMA CITY - A federal judge and an appeals court both have rejected an attempt by an Oklahoma inmate to stop his pending execution for the slayings of two people.
U.S. District Judge David Russell in Oklahoma City and a three-judge panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver both on Monday denied inmate George Ochoa’s attempt for a stay of execution.
The 38-year-old Ochoa is scheduled to be executed today for the 1993 shooting deaths of two people in their Oklahoma City home while three of the couple’s children were present. Ochoa maintains he is innocent.
Ochoa’s attorneys claim their client is insane and that Oklahoma’s procedure for determining competency to be executed is unconstitutional. But both courts rejected those claims in their orders on Monday.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 12/04/2012