Fatal shooting 3rd by LR police in ’13

Residents protest; 2 officers on leave

A Little Rock police officer fatally shot a man in a backyard late Monday morning, sparking a loud and at times hostile protest by about 250 people across the street from the investigation.

As homicide detectives and crime scene technicians surveyed the yard at 1110 S. Adams St., where Deon Williams, 26, was fatally wounded by an unidentified officer, dozens, then scores and eventually hundreds of protesters, mostly black, clogged the lot and the sidewalk across the street at the West 12th Street Market at 4511 W. 12th St.

Only a stone’s throw from where Williams was shot, the crowd protested and threw soft drinks at police while invoking the name of a black teenager killed last year by a Little Rock officer, as well as a Florida teen whose shooter was acquitted over the weekend.

Williams’ killing marks the third fatal shooting by a Little Rock police officer this year.

Monday’s shooting also marks the second time an officer shot someone in the past week. Last Tuesday night, Antoine Wilbert was shot by officer Eliot Young during a domestic disturbance outside Wilbert’s ex-wife’s apartment. Police officials did not have any updates on Wilbert, who was listed in serious condition after the shooting.

Officials have not released the names of the officers involved in that shooting.

Monday’s shooting followed a traffic stop near West 12th and Jefferson streets.

According to Sgt. Cassandra Davis, a spokesman with the Police Department, officers pulled over a black Chevrolet Suburban on West 12th Street at about 11:41 a.m. Davis said the vehicle matched the description of a vehicle that had been recently reported stolen.

When the SUV stopped, its driver, Williams, who was paroled out of prison in late May for drug charges, took off running.

Bystander Charles Sims watched as Williams bolted from police in a “full sprint” and cut across a parking lot at Adams Street.

Sims said a black officer was only 20 yards behind Williams on foot while a white officer was in a vehicle.

The suspect, carrying a bag and constantly pulling up his saggy pants, cut into an alley behind some West 12th Street businesses, Sims said.

That’s when Sims said he heard “at least eight or nine” gunshots.

According to Davis, the officer chasing Williams on foot came around the corner and saw a gun fall from Wiliams’ waistband. The officer had his Taser in his hand, but dropped it and pulled his pistol at the sight of the gun, Davis said.

Williams picked up his gun and looked toward the officer, who Davis said feared for his life and opened fire.

According to Police Chief Stuart Thomas, police found a firearm as well as unidentified drugs near Williams.

The officer, whom Thomas identified only as a black officer, was put on administrative leave, along with the other officer, Thomas said, and detectives began both criminal and internal investigations into the shooting.

Sims said the man was barely able to keep his pants up while he ran, and said he didn’t see a gun and thought the suspect wouldn’t have been able to pull a gun.

“If he had a gun, I didn’t see it. Where’d the gun come from?” Sims said. “It’s just like we in Florida. They didn’t have no right, he was running.”

Added Sims: “This is ridiculous. It makes no sense.”

As crime scene technicians and detectives saturated the 1100 block of Adams Street, a crowd started to form in the parking lot of the Family Dollar store on the northeast corner of West 12th and Adams streets.

Police moved the crowd, then numbering around 50, across the street to the West 12th Street Market.

From there, the crowd grew, along with speculation and rumor. As the heat rose to about 90 degrees, so did tempers.

Talking to a small group, Wayne Burt, a youth mentor, tried to dispel some of the rumors that he had heard, ranging from the officer shooting the suspect in the back to the suspect being as young as 11 years old.

“What I’m trying to get to now is the rumor … that’s pissing me off, the one that it was a child 11 years old that got shot,” Burt shouted over a group of men.

“A guy over there said he knew him, said he was 10 years old,” one man shouted back.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Burt said.

“He was running.,” yelled one man, who identified himself as Michael Gwyn. “He didn’t shoot nobody.”

“They trying to flip the script,” another man yelled, referring to police accounts of what happened.

Police shut down West 12th Street for several blocks and an Arkansas State Police helicopter hovered over the growing crowd.

A long line of officers stood in the turning lane of West 12th Street between the crime scene and the crowd, who eventually took to chanting “F* the police” and “No Justice, No Peace” and waving signs made from poster board and markers purchased at the Family Dollar store just across the street.

The line of officers grew into a phalanx, a mixed unit of patrol, specialized and community officers who were told by supervisors not to engage the crowd, mostly grouped at the West 12th Street Market lot.

“This is an illegal assembly. Disperse immediately. Disperse immediately or you will be arrested,” an unidentified sergeant told the crowd. “This is the Little Rock Police Department. Disperse immediately or you will be arrested. This is an illegal assembly.”

The crowd only shouted back, many clutching signs citing Bobby Moore, a black 15-year-old who was shot and killed by former officer Josh Hastings in August 2012.

Hastings, a white officer, was arrested and charged with felony manslaughter in Moore’s killing. He was fired and went on trial last month but a 12-member, all-white jury couldn’t reach a verdict. He is expected to be retried later this year.

Calls of Moore’s name were mixed with other chants of “Florida” and “Trayvon Martin,” a reference to the Florida teen who was shot to death by a neighborhood watch captain in February 2012. George Zimmerman, the watch captain, was acquitted of second-degree murder charges in Sanford, Fla., on Saturday.

Zimmerman’s case has sparked a national debate over race, self defense and the fairness of the country’s justice system.

As more officers arrived at the West 12th Street scene Monday, Rizelle Aaron, an officer in the Jacksonville chapter of the NAACP, took the PA microphone.

“I need you to listen to me, listen to me, I’m not a police officer,” Aaron yelled. “I understand, I understand … Listen to me, listen to me.”

Aaron tried to encourage the crowd to calm down, to wait for facts to come in on the shooting, and most of all, to get the children in the crowd away from the protest in case police started to move in.

About 3:15 p.m., a mostly full soft-drink can arched through the air over the officers’ heads and landed about 2 feet away from a reporter.

About 20 minutes later, empty water bottles were thrown from the crowd and landed near other officers. Another bottle nearly hit Thomas and a group of reporters interviewing him.

No officers responded to the objects thrown at them or the crowd’s expletives.

Aaron said he expected a “hostile” environment, given the national frustration in the black community with news of the Zimmerman acquittal in Florida. He said the rumors running around the crowd and in the neighborhood weren’t helping.

“That’s the problem, we don’t have all the facts yet,” Aaron said. “Some people aren’t going to believe what the police say, but there are rational people who will.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/16/2013

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