Police rules broken in 911 call

Officers disciplined for not going to kidnapping scene

FORT SMITH -- Fort Smith police violated department protocols when officers failed to respond to a 911 call in June when a woman was kidnapped at gunpoint at a local business, according to the results of an internal department investigation.

Police Chief Kevin Lindsey "initiated appropriate discipline and mandated additional training," a department news release stated Monday. The type of discipline and the names of employees disciplined were not released, department spokesman Sgt. Daniel Grubbs said.

After the June 24 call to the department, information was sent to officers to be on the lookout for a car believed to have been used in the kidnapping, but no officers were sent to the scene of the kidnapping, according to the release.

Lindsey called for an internal investigation surrounding the events of the initial 911 call, the news release states.

A 54-year-old Van Buren woman was in the Staples parking lot in the 5700 block of Rogers Avenue about 11 a.m. on June 24 when she was approached by a man with a gun who forced her into her car and drove away, reports state.

A manager at Staples called 911 and reported she saw a woman being forced by a man into a car and that the man appeared to have a gun. The manager gave the 911 operator information about the vehicle and the direction it was headed as it left the parking lot.

Reports state that the man, later identified as Ardwin Frank Sylvester, 37, who is listed with the Sebastian County sheriff's office as a Level 3 sex offender, drove the woman south on U.S. 71 out of town. Along the way, the man robbed the woman and sexually assaulted her.

The woman was able to escape in Ashdown when the kidnapper stopped at a convenience store to refuel her car, according to the reports. She ran into the store screaming that she had been kidnapped and for someone to call for help. She took refuge with store employees and witnesses as the man drove off.

Arkansas State Police troopers chased the man into Little River County. During the chase, he threw a semi-automatic handgun from the vehicle before pulling over and surrendering, police have said.

Sylvester was returned to Fort Smith where he is charged in Sebastian County Circuit Court with kidnapping, aggravated robbery, rape, being a felon in possession of a firearm and a petition to revoke. He's being held in the Sebastian County jail in lieu of a $275,000 bond.

NW News on 08/12/2014

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