VAN BUREN — A Franklin County woman said she was afraid and thought a state Highway Department employee was “after her” when she shot her Tuesday at a rest stop off Interstate 40 west of Van Buren, according to an Arkansas State Police report.
Patricia Hajek-McClure, 58, also told state police investigator Lt. Steven Coppinger she didn’t remember shooting anyone Tuesday morning. Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department employee Sharren Richards, 54, died from two gunshot wounds to the neck at the Fort Smith/Van Buren Welcome Center.
Hajek-McClure said she did remember, though, one of her dogs jumping on her lap while she was holding the loaded pistol, which caused her to accidentally shoot herself in the leg while in her Chevrolet pickup. Police say the leg wound occurred sometime before Richards was shot.
Coppinger’s interview with Hajek-McClure took place at Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith, where she was waiting for medical treatment about two hours after the 6:30 a.m. shooting at the rest stop.
Hajek-McClure is being held in the Crawford County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond on a charge of firstdegree murder. Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune said Friday that he plans to file formal charges on Monday.
Among the police reports submitted to the prosecutor’s office on the case was an interview with Sealy, Texas, truck driver Charles Pharis who said he witnessed the shooting and called 911.
Pharis, who identified himself to reporters Tues-day as Charles Scott, said he saw Richards pull up behind Hajek-McClure’s Chevrolet pickup that was parked in the middle of the roadway in the back of the rest stop.
Richards got out and walked to Hajek-McClure’s pickup, on which the driver’s door was open, Pharis told police.
He said when Richards reached the pickup, the person inside shot the worker twice. He told police he saw Richards grab her neck, walk back to the highway department pickup and fall to the ground.
Hajek-McClure told Coppinger, according to his report, she didn’t know how long she was at the rest stop but that she didn’t sleep. She spent her time talking to God.
Coppinger stated in his report that Hajek-McClure told him a woman knocked on her pickup window and told her to move her truck. She could not see the person well because her window was fogged over.
She said she thought the woman saw the gun in her hand.
Coppinger’s report stated Hajek-McClure told him the woman stepped away but quickly returned and they spoke again but she didn’t remember what was said.
“Hajek-McClure says if she has to explain why she shot the woman it was because of fear,” Coppinger wrote.
The report stated Hajek-McClure said the woman did not identify herself and she thought she might have been a police officer. But, when the woman did not identify herself, she thought the woman was someone who was afterher.
According to Coppinger’s report, Hajek-McClure denied having taken alcohol or drugs and has never been diagnosed with or treated for a mental illness.
She told Coppinger, according to his report, she moved to Arkansas about six months ago from Phoenix and bought five acres of land on White Valley Road near Mulberry in Franklin County.
According to the report, Hajek-McClure lived alone in a red shack on the property that had no running water, electricity or gas. She didn’t know anyone in Arkansas and her only companions were her four dogs.
The first Van Buren police officer to reach the rest stop after the shooting was Sgt. Franklin Petray, who stated in his report that Hajek-Mc-Clure got out of the pickup as he took cover behind a pavilion and aimed an AR-15 rifle at her.
When he ordered her to get on the ground, according to his report, she responded, “I can’t. I’m shot. My dog shot me.”
She pulled a Ruger .22-caliber revolver from her purse and held the grip in a non-threatening way, Petray wrote. He disarmed her.
Hajek-McClure was taken to Summit Memorial Hospital in Van Buren and then transferred to Sparks, where a report stated doctors did not remove the bullet because it had struck no bone or artery.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 05/05/2012