BRYANT - A shootout at a Fred’s Super Dollar store in Bryant late Tuesday left a fugitive Illinois murder suspect dead and a Bryant police officer wounded, authorities said Wednesday.
The gunfire exchange began about 11:05 p.m. at the store at 3395 Arkansas 5, just minutes after officer Scott Johnson arrived to check on a burglary alarm, according to dispatch notes from a Bryant Police Department report.
When Johnson encountered a man in a small, fenced area attached to the west side of the store, the man pulled a gun on Johnson, ignored demands to drop the weapon and then fired, police spokesman Sgt. Todd Crowson said.
Johnson, who was shot twice in his left hand and once in his left shoulder, fired at the man, later identified as Thomas R. O’Dell, 41, of Trilla, Ill. O’Dell was pronounced dead later that night at Saline Memorial Hospital, police said.
O’Dell was wanted on first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in the March 18 death of a bartender at a pub in Mattoon, Ill according to an article in the Journal Gazette & Times-Courier online and Arkansas State Police.
O’Dell is also a suspect in auto thefts in Springfield,Mo. and Mansfield, Mo., one of which was at gunpoint, Bryant police said.
Cpl. Charles Lamb was at the east end of the store inspecting the pharmacy’s drive-through window during the shooting, according to the police report. He noticed “a spot in the middle [of the window] where it had been struck by some object,” the report said. The dispatch notes state that the window had been shot, but no one appeared to have gained entry to the store.
“At that time, I heard a series of noises that sounded like something striking the side of a metal building,” Lamb wrote in an account of the shooting. “I started to walk towards the front of the building, when I heard Officer Johnson on the radio advising that there were shots fired.”
Lamb then drove to the side of the store where Johnson was.
“I could see blood on his left hand. He told me that the shooter was hit and down in the fenced area,” Lamb wrote.
Lamb told Johnson to sit in the front of the store, the report said. When other officers arrived, they went into the fenced area and saw O’Dell lying on his right side. One officer kicked a handgun away and put O’Dell in handcuffs, the report states.
In addition to the gun, officers found a pair of black gloves, a plastic baggie and a number of white pills scattered near O’Dell, Lamb’s report said.
Johnson was taken to a Little Rock hospital and released Tuesday night. He had surgery to remove the bullet lodged in his left shoulder Wednesday afternoon and is expected to make a full recovery.
He will remain on administrative leave with pay until the conclusion of an investigation into the shooting, Crowson said. Johnson has worked at the Bryant department for two years and has no disciplinary record, Crowson said.
While the Bryant Police Department is conducting its own investigation into the shooting, Crowson said, Arkansas State Police is the primary agency investigating.
The state police’s Criminal Investigation Division is working on a case file for the Saline County prosecuting attorney’s office “to determine if deadly force was used consistent with Arkansas law,” a news release said. It is unclear how long that process will take, Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said.
“We don’t put a clock on an investigation. We make sure that everything is done as prescribed by statute and that the prosecuting attorney is given all information the prosecutor may ask for,” Sadler said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/04/2013