Inquiry continues in police shooting
JONESBORO- Special agents with the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division are investigating an officer-involved shooting that happened Sunday night in Jonesboro.
Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said Jonesboro police were called to an apartment building after someone reported smelling marijuana.
“The shooting occurred as the individual inside the apartment - [who] was the subject of the complaint - opened the door and encountered police,” Sadler said.
The person, whose identity was not released, was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, according to authorities. Neither Sadler nor the Jonesboro police would identify the officer involved in the shooting.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEMental exam OK’d
in triple slaying
MURFREESBORO- A judge has granted a request for a mental evaluation for a man arrested in the shooting deaths of three people, including his 9-year-old niece.
Circuit Judge Charles Yeargan granted the request Monday from defense attorneys for 43-year-old Timothy Allen Hill.
Authorities arrested Hill in the July 13 deaths of his estranged wife, Dana Hill;
his mother-in-law, Julie Hartsfield; and his niece, Autumn Hartsfield. All three were found shot to death at a home near Murfreesboro.
The Texarkana Gazette reported that Hill will be transferred to the State Hospital in Little Rock for a mental evaluation. He’s being held in the Pike County jail with bail set at $1 million. - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LR investigators focus on shooting
Little Rock police are investigating the death of a 17-year-old from Altheimer who was found with a gunshot wound at a home in the city’s southwest.
Police said Tuesday that Jason Foster died about 3 a.m. at a hospital after being found wounded about an hour earlier.
Police said investigators were following up on leads and trying to develop a suspect and discover a motive in the shooting.
A resident called authorities after shots were fired, and an arriving officer was flagged down and led to a porch where the victim lay bleeding.
A witness told police that people were arguing before the shooting and that some left in a vehicle after shots were fired.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Man found dead in complex’s pool
BARTLESVILLE, Okla.
- Authorities in Bartlesville said a 25-year-old man drowned in a swimming pool at an apartment complex.
Bartlesville police said Sarathchandra Avadhanam was found dead Sunday afternoon at Willowbrook Condominiums. Police said residents discovered Avadhanam at the bottom of the pool and that emergency responders were unable to revive him.
Bartlesville police Capt.
Jay Hastings said no onewitnessed the drowning, and friends told police that Avadhanam did not know how to swim.
The Examiner-Enterprise reported that police have closed the investigation into Avadhanam’s death, saying no foul play is suspected.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESSGirl’s adoption at hub of tribe filing
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. - The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma said it has filed a petition for a rehearing of the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision allowing the adoption of a girl of Cherokee heritage by a Charleston, S.C.,-area couple.
The Tahlequah-based tribe said Monday that the court’s decision was “troubling.”
Several American Indian groups are also preparing to sue over the decision.
The Native American Rights Fund, National Congress of American Indians and National Indian Child Welfare Association said Monday that they want to try to protect the best interests of the now-3-year-old girl named Veronica.
The girl has been living in Oklahoma since 2011 when South Carolina justices said a federal law favored her being raised by her biological father, a member of the Cherokee Nation who has been pursuing custody of Veronica in Oklahoma.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS2 get probation in post-tornado theft
JOPLIN, Mo.- Two men who admitted stealing copper wire from the streets of Joplin after the May 2011 tornado have been placed on probation.
A Jasper County judge Monday granted five years of probation for 32-year-old Nycoa Kracht of Laurel, Ind., and 45-year-old Timothy Silveria of Joplin for stealing wire from a public utility.
The two and 34-year-old Dennis B. Ray of Joplin were arrested May 25, 2011, with a load of copper wire.
Police said the wire had been cut from nearby Empire District Electric Co.
utility poles in an area of the city devastated by the tornado on May 22.
The Joplin Globe reported that Ray was sentenced in December to three years in prison.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESSClass space found in wake of twister
OKLAHOMA CITY-School officials in Moore said students whose schools were destroyed by a tornado will attend classes in a refurbished junior high school building and a local church when classes resume in the fall.
Moore Public Schools spokesman Pam Westbrook said Monday that architects are still working with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials on details of the two new schools that will be built in their place, including the construction of safe-room hallways.
But Westbrook said the goal is to have both schools constructed and ready for students by the fall of 2014.
At the Plaza Towers Elementary School site, the demolished building has been hauled off, but the slab remains. The school grounds are ringed with a chain-link fence covered in T-shirts and mementos.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 07/24/2013