LR man killed by off-duty lawman

Officer’s account cites robbery try

Correction: Jovon Allen was shot and killed late Sunday night by an off-duty officer, Little Rock police said. Because of incorrect information from the Little Rock Police Department, Allen’s first name was misspelled in this article.

An off-duty Little Rock police officer shot and killed a man who tried to rob him late Sunday night, police said.

Juvon Allen, 21, of Little Rock was shot three times in the upper chest, according to police reports, and pronounced dead at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center not long after he was taken there by a friend after the 11:35 p.m. shooting.

Allen's death marks the 25th homicide this year and the first slaying involving a sworn police officer.

Little Rock Police Department officials withheld the name of the officer Monday in accordance with department policy, which prohibits it from releasing the name of an officer involved in a traumatic event until the department has been able to notify the officer's family.

Police spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen, who is not related to Juvon Allen, said the off-duty officer is a 50-year-old man with more than 20 years of experience in the department.

The unidentified officer was loading items, including a bicycle, into his maroon SUV, which he'd parked in the northeast end of the Vantage Point Apartments at 2300 Rebsamen Park Road, when Juvon Allen walked up behind him with a gun drawn, police said.

Sidney Allen would not comment on why the officer was at the complex but said Juvon Allen and the officer were the only ones in the lot when the shooting occurred.

According to the officer's account, the suspect put the gun to the back of his head, and the officer whipped around and forced the aim of the gun off of him, Sidney Allen said..

The suspect then punched the officer, and the officer punched back, hitting Juvon Allen in the mouth, officials said.

The officer then pulled his personal weapon from his pocket and opened fire, striking Juvon Allen three times, police reports state, although police haven't confirmed how many rounds were fired.

According to the officer's account, Juvon Allen ran off a few car lengths before turning around and firing once at the officer.

Juvon Allen's shot missed and struck a nearby car, and police said they did not know if the off-duty officer fired a second time.

The suspect fled across the complex's large lots and hopped into a green Honda Accord with a missing hubcap waiting on the opposite end of the property.

One apartment resident, Mike Sanders, said he was winding down by watching a movie in bed when he heard five or six gunshots outside his apartment.

His teenage sons went into the room and asked their father if the sound outside was gunfire, and he told them to go into their rooms and sit down, he said.

Sanders said that when he looked out the window, he saw a man matching Juvon Allen's description running through the lot.

"He was sprinting. I don't know if you've seen someone struggling to run, but that's what it looked like, like he was struggling," Sanders said. "It looked like there was a guy sitting in the car already waiting on him when he jumped in. ... I backed away from the window a bit because I didn't want him to see me. I didn't know if he had a gun."

The driver of the Honda, Torrance Deadmon, 24, drove Juvon Allen south from the complex and when he reached the hospital, tossed a weapon under a truck parked in the lot, police reports state.

Deadmon was interviewed and released without charges, Sidney Allen said, but his role in the attempted robbery remains under investigation.

Beyond saying that the off-duty officer worked out of the department's northwest division on Kanis Road, Sidney Allen wouldn't answer questions, such as whether the officer had been involved in a shooting before or was a part of a specialized unit, because he didn't want to identify the officer before he had authorization to do so.

Sunday night's shooting marked the first fatal officer-involved shooting in Little Rock this year.

Last year, there were four fatal officer-involved shootings.

Sidney Allen did not know whether all of them had been ruled justified by the prosecutor's office.

Sidney Allen said the officer was on paid administrative leave as of Monday afternoon and is being investigated by both criminal and internal investigators.

He said he did not know how soon he would be able to release the identity of the officer.

Metro on 05/20/2014

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