Veteran charged in slaying of runner

FORT SMITH -- A 24-year-old Barling man who was contemplating suicide decided instead to shoot a runner at Chaffee Crossing over the weekend, Fort Smith police said.

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John Suleski was charged Monday with first-degree murder and first-degree unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, also a felony, in the death Saturday morning of 44-year-old Brent Morrison of Fort Smith.

Suleski, a staff sergeant with the Arkansas Air National Guard's 188th Wing and a Marine veteran, is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Sebastian County Circuit Court on Wednesday, according to the prosecutor's office. He was being held without bail Monday in the Sebastian County jail.

Police Cpl. Barbara Williams said Monday that Suleski told investigators he was having marital problems and drove to Chaffee Crossing to shoot himself. He was armed with a .22-caliber pistol.

A probable cause affidavit by police stated that Suleski confessed to shooting Morrison from the back seat of his Chevrolet HHR, which was parked on an access road off Wells Lake Road.

Police at the scene spoke with Arlyn Baker, 49, who said he was driving south on Wells Lake Road when he saw a bloody man lying on the ground in the southbound lane and pulled over.

A black Chevrolet HHR was parked across the street from him, and the driver was sitting inside, Baker told police. The man, later identified as Suleski, got out and told him he had just arrived and didn't know what happened.

An officer at the scene, Vincent Clamser, examined Morrison's body in the street. He wrote in his report that Morrison had two small bullet wounds in the chest, one in the back of the head and a cut on his right side near his kidney.

A police news release said Morrison's body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for autopsy.

Mark Cogburn of Fort Smith told police that he was running at Chaffee Crossing about 5:45 a.m. and saw a Chevrolet HHR heading north on Wells Lake Road, according to a report by officer Dustin Barentine.

According to Barentine's report, Cogburn said the vehicle was all over the road, going from side to side as if the driver was looking for somewhere to pull off the road. Cogburn said the vehicle eventually pulled onto an access road.

He told the police that he ran past the vehicle but could not see anyone inside because it was still dark.

The next time he saw it, after completing his run, it was surrounded by police and fire vehicles.

Formerly part of Fort Chaffee, Chaffee Crossing is a 7,000-acre area that was declared surplus in the 1990s by the U.S. Department of Defense and turned over for civilian development. Parts of Chaffee Crossing, which is popular with runners and cyclists, have been annexed by Fort Smith and Barling.

Metro on 07/14/2015

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