A 33-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a toddler during what police called a case of road rage was upset that the car behind him was following too closely, according to court records released Friday.
Gary Holmes Sr. of Little Rock surrendered to Little Rock police Thursday night in the death of 3-year-old Acen King, who was shot while riding in the back seat of his grandmother's car last weekend.
Police charged Holmes with one count of capital murder and two counts of committing a terroristic act.
He is being held without bail and refused to appear before a Little Rock district judge Friday morning.
Acen King's death drew national and international headlines and prompted local elected officials, church leaders and activists to call for the shooter to turn himself in and for an end to street violence.
The 3-year-old's death came less than a month after a 2-year-old girl was fatally shot, also while riding in the back seat of a vehicle.
Holmes' girlfriend told police that he had a semiautomatic pistol in his lap while driving a black Chevrolet Impala in southwest Little Rock on Dec. 17, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. With him in the sedan were his girlfriend and another man.
"As they were going down Warren Drive, Holmes got upset because he thought that a vehicle behind them was following them too close," according to the affidavit by Little Rock detective Steve Moore.
Holmes pulled over to the side of the road and let the car pass, the affidavit said.
Kim Macon-King, traveling with Acen King and 1-year-old Alijah King in a Dodge Charger, passed Holmes and pulled up to a stop sign, the document said.
She stayed there for a few minutes, the document said.
Holmes honked his horn for several seconds, while Macon-King told police that she honked back.
According to the affidavit, Holmes got out of his car and fired one time at Macon-King's car.
"That's what you get for following me around," Holmes said after he got back into his car, according to the affidavit.
Thinking the man behind her had fired in the air, Macon-King turned left onto Mabelvale Cut Off Road and drove to the J.C. Penney store at the Shackleford Crossings shopping center, where she had planned to meet up with family members.
When she went to get Acen out of the car, Macon-King found him unresponsive and realized that he had been shot, police said.
Emergency medical personnel took the toddler to Arkansas Children's Hospital, where he died later that night, police said.
At the scene of the shooting detectives found one spent .40-caliber shell casing in the street, according to the affidavit.
Investigators also spoke with witnesses who said they had heard horns honking followed by one gunshot, according to the document.
After the shooting, city officials and the FBI's Little Rock field office each offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.
Homicide detectives received a tip Monday that identified Holmes as a suspect, according to the affidavit. A caller told police that Holmes was in his girlfriend's car and said the girlfriend was in possession of a black Chevrolet Impala.
Holmes did not realize that someone had been shot until the next day, the document said.
Police are not looking for anybody else in connection with the homicide, officer Richard Hilgeman, a department spokesman, said Friday.
Joshua Kaplan, senior inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service, said the agency assisted Little Rock with the case, but he declined to provide further information.
About two hours before Holmes turned himself in Thursday night, Little Rock police were called to a disturbance involving Holmes in southwest Little Rock, according to a police report.
When police arrived, a woman told them that she and Holmes had gotten into a argument and that he had left the area on foot.
It wasn't the first time this year that police have been called regarding Holmes.
In May, officers responded after a neighbor reported seeing a man identified as Holmes break in a door and begin hitting a woman, according to a report.
When a witness called police, Holmes went across the street to hit a man on the side of the head before picking up a large rock and throwing it at him, according to the report.
And in March, officers responded after Holmes' girlfriend reported that he had hit her multiple times and that she needed help.
Once at the scene, the woman told police that she feared for her life.
"He's crazy, and he will kill me," she told police. "You just don't understand."
A family member of Holmes' declined to comment on his arrest Friday.
In October 2015, Holmes was found guilty of first-degree terroristic threatening and third-degree domestic battery for offenses that occurred in April 2014, according to online court records.
Little Rock City Director Ken Richardson said Friday that although it will not bring the toddler back, he hopes Holmes' arrest will bring some closure and resolution to the family.
Richardson said elected officials, business leaders and education leaders need to focus their attention on addressing the social ills that lead people to commit senseless acts of violence.
Unemployment, poor educational outcomes and other systemic problems allow people to gravitate to violent crime, he said.
"I don't think we can police our way out of these issues," he said.
Richardson also said he wondered why the death of 2-year-old Ramiya Reed, who was fatally shot while in the back seat of a vehicle in November, did not generate the same widespread anger from the community.
The city would be a better place if violent crime at all levels garnered the same energy and attention from the community, he said.
"I think that may change the notion of what people are willing to accept," Richardson said.
Pastor Scottie Long with The Mercy Church in southwest Little Rock said he was proud that the community came together and worked through the Little Rock police to find the suspected killer.
"That's something that we haven't seen in a long time," he said.
Yet the killing is still a tragedy, Long said.
"Everybody lost in this situation," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Austin Cannon of Arkansas Online.
Metro on 12/24/2016