A Little Rock woman accused of shooting a man point-blank in the throat had been threatening him for days, a Little Rock detective told a Pulaski County circuit judge on Tuesday.
Detective Jarred McCauley testified that a witness heard Amber M. Rice threaten to kill Zachary Cortez Buchanan during an encounter in the Kitchen Express parking lot on Asher Avenue the week before the 22-year-old Buchanan was shot in the neck in April in front of a home at 2014 Adams St.
Buchanan, who required emergency surgery, was able to identify Rice in an interview the week after he was shot, McCauley told Judge Leon Johnson. Buchanan had known Rice since childhood, and showed police threatening text messages he had received from Rice the day before he was shot, the detective said.
Buchanan's girlfriend, 19-year-old Tyneesha Chisolm, said she witnessed the shooting, telling police that Rice, yelling and screaming at Buchanan, put a gun to his neck and shot him, then pushed him to the ground.
Witnesses told police Rice was angry at Buchanan because she believed he had sex with her former girlfriend, McCauley told the judge.
Rice, 21, was arrested at 2016 Brown St. about a month after the shooting. The judge denied a request by Rice to reduce her bail from $200,000, citing in part the fact that she is on probation for theft and forgery convictions out of Faulkner County.
Testifying on Rice's behalf was her grandmother, Mae Piggee, who told the judge her granddaughter lives with her on West 28th Street. Rice helps Piggee take care of her ailing husband, who is due to have his leg amputated on Thursday. Piggee said she suffers from arthritis and Rice also helps take care of her.
Rice also suffers from mysterious seizures, with medical testing pending to figure out what causes them, Piggee told the judge.
Her granddaughter has also been a student at Pulaski Technical College for years and has plans to re-enroll in August, Piggee said.
In court filings, both Piggee and Rice's mother, Veronica Rice, say she has bipolar disorder and suffers from mood swings that can make her aggressive and threatening.
Metro on 06/25/2014