LITTLE ROCK — After watching a pair of men in masks rob and shoot a man in the leg outside a bank early Monday afternoon, an unidentified man standing across the street pulled a gun and fired at the robbers’ vehicle as they fled through a busy parking lot.
The robbery victim, whom police did not identify Monday, was hit in the leg and his wounds were not expected to be life-threatening, according to police, who said no one else was hit by gunfire.
Little Rock Police Department spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis said Monday afternoon that detectives took two men into custody for questioning shortly after the shooting in the parking lot of the Arvest Bank at 16107 Chenal Parkway.
Monday night, detectives said they arrested Melton Parker, 22, of Sherwood and charged him with aggravated robbery, felony theft of property, first-degree battery and possession of a firearm by a felon.
The other man detained for questioning was released without charges, police said.
According to Davis, the victim was robbed at around 1:35 p.m. while standing in the parking lot of the bank. He had “a lot of cash ... [he may have been] making a deposit or for some reason had some money on him” when the two robbers came at him, at least one of whom was armed.
One of the robbers fired a shot and then the two of them fled in a white, two-door car with a doughnut spare tire on its right side, Davis said, but not before a witness standing in the Kroger gas station saw what was happening and fired “at least one shot” at the car.
According to Davis and witnesses, the armed bystander missed the robbers’ vehicle and hit another one that was on its way out of the parking lot.
More information about the bystander was not available from police.
The car that fled was found minutes after the robbery in the parking lot of The Fountains at Chenal apartment complex at 15000 Chenal Parkway.
Witness Stephen Bailey, 31, was at the west Little Rock gas station for a quick fill-up when he heard a loud “boom.”
“I was getting out of the vehicle [to look at what happened], saw women [who were] screaming ‘fire,’ and I thought maybe there was a fire in a vehicle,” Bailey said. “That’s when I saw a white car, at full speed, drive by me.”
Then, a middle-aged man wearing scrubs, who Bailey said he thought was a doctor, pulled out a handgun and started shooting.
“The doctor was trying to save the day and stop them,” Bailey said. “Midday like this, banks aren’t supposed to be open [on a holiday]. ... Open [gun]fire between shooters, it is scary.”
Bailey said he was one of a group of people who ran to the gunshot and robbery victim, who told the group that he had gotten on the ground when one of the robbers pulled a gun on him.
The man gave over his deposit bag, Bailey said, and then one of the robbers shot him while he was still on the ground.
Davis said detectives were still reconciling accounts from witnesses and she wasn’t in a position to confirm all of Bailey’s account.
The spokesman said detectives have not established a connection between the robbery outside the Arvest bank and the armed robbery of a west Little Rock restaurant earlier Monday.
About 8:45 a.m., a man armed with a shotgun and a man armed with a handgun walked into the Johnny Carino’s at 11600 Pleasant Ridge and robbed the employees in the restaurant.
Those men fled in a light blue, hatchback-type vehicle, Davis said.
Both robberies remained under investigation, and Davis said detectives were waiting for a search warrant before they could process the vehicle found in the apartment-complex lot.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/13/2012