The identities of a man and woman fatally shot in rural Sevier County over the weekend were released Monday.
The bodies of Deborah A. Johnson, 66, and L. Don Brown, 70, were found in a burned field about 3 p.m. Saturday behind Johnson's home at 132 Cottage Hill Drive in Horatio, said Robert Gentry, Sevier County sheriff's investigator and sheriff-elect.
A suspect in the deaths, Andre Johnson, 40, was killed about 9 p.m. Saturday in Broken Bow, Okla., when he fired on police after a car chase, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Gentry said Brown's clothes were singed by the fire in the field. He would not comment whether the fire had been started to burn Johnson's body.
Gentry said investigators had not determined a motive for the shootings. Andre Johnson was the son of Deborah Johnson and had been living in the home with his mother for about two months. There were no reports of trouble at the home before the shooting.
The Arkansas State Police is investigating the killings, Gentry said. The bodies were sent to the state medical examiner's office.
Gentry said Brown, a retired executive vice president of operations for Kraft USA Inc., was staying down the street at 155 Cottage Hill Drive and apparently believed he was going to Johnson's home to assist in putting out a fire.
A friend of Brown's, David Sullivan of Napierville, Ill., said he was told that Brown was driving a tractor when he saw smoke coming from the field and went to investigate.
Brown and his wife, who live in Cave Creek, Ariz., were spending the summer at his parents' home, Sullivan said.
According to an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation news release, a Broken Bow police officer spotted Andre Johnson about 9 p.m. and tried to pull him over. A chase followed.
At one point in the pursuit, Johnson drove down a dead-end street, turned around, got out of the vehicle and began shooting at an officer's car, the release said. Witnesses say he then ran to another police cruiser and shot at the windshield.
Four officers -- two from the Broken Bow Police Department, one from the McCurtain County sheriff's office and one from the Choctaw Nation Tribal Police Department -- shot at Johnson, striking him multiple times, the release said. Johnson was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents will conduct an investigation into the officer-involved shooting and forward the report to the district attorney to determine if the shooting was justified.
According to Brown's Facebook page, he was a native of Horatio, an Army veteran, graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff when it was the Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College and was to be inducted into the university's National Alumni Association Hall of Fame in the business and industry category in October.
Michael Mullen, Kraft's senior vice president for corporate and government affairs, said in a statement Monday that Brown made numerous contributions in manufacturing and operations during his time with the company.
"He will be greatly missed," Mullen said.
Brown also was the brother of the late Darrell Brown, a Little Rock attorney and civil-rights activist who in 1965 became the first black football player at the University of Arkansas.
State Desk on 07/12/2016