Little Rock police believe four shootings last fall are connected to a fifth shooting in November that injured a 23-year-old man, a police spokesman said Monday.
The five shootings, spanning between Sept. 30 and Nov. 10, left a total of seven people injured, said department spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan. In one of those shootings, a house was hit several times but nobody was hurt, police said.
No arrests have been made in the cases, something McClanahan said is the result of uncooperative shooting victims.
"If you don't cooperate with the police, what happens?" McClanahan said. "The cycle repeats itself, oftentimes until we make an arrest."
It's unclear what spurred the string of Little Rock shootings, but retaliation is a factor in the violence, McClanahan said. The victims ranged from 15 to 23 years old at the time of the shootings.
"We can't solve crimes without witnesses coming forward or without forensic evidence," he said.
Department spokesman officer Steve Moore said police believe the shooting of 23-year-old Keyshawn Moseby on Nov. 10 is connected to the previous four shootings.
In that shooting, officers were called at 8:41 p.m. to 1616 W. 24th St. for a report of an unknown trouble, according to the police report.
When they arrived, Mini Muhammad, 64, told police she heard several gunshots outside the house and that Moseby had been taken to a hospital, according to the report.
Police went to UAMS Medical Center and saw a vehicle pull up carrying Moseby and two other men, according to the report. Moseby was shot in his upper left thigh and did not have life-threatening injuries.
Moseby and the two other men told police they were sitting on the front porch at 1616 W. 24th St. when somebody in a vehicle going south on Marshall Street started shooting, firing three or more shots at them, according to the report.
About a month earlier on Oct. 7, police had been called to the same house for a report of shots fired.
Several people outside the residence said the house had been "shot up," but nobody had been hit by the bullets, according to a police report.
Police said the house had several bullet holes, and officers found about 40 rifle shell casings about seven blocks north of the residence at the intersection of Marshall and West 17th streets, according to the report.
The day before, on Oct. 6, police found a 15-year-old boy lying in the middle of the street near Montclair Road and Cone Lane, according to the report. He told police two black males arrived near 1624 Cone Lane and shot at him several times.
Later that day, police were called to a shooting at the intersection of Peyton and West 16th streets -- about three blocks from where police found the 15-year-old, according to the police.
Willie Abrenjelon, then 19, and an unidentified teenager were injured in the shooting and dropped off at UAMS Medical Center suffering from "several" gunshot wounds, according to a report.
The first of the connected shootings came on Sept. 30. Three people were shot in the area of West 13th and Rice streets, about a block away from Little Rock Central High School, police said.
Police were called to the scene at around 9:46 p.m. and found a 17-year-old shooting victim sitting in the driver's seat of a green 1996 Pontiac, according to the report.
The two other shooting victims -- Bilijah Muhammad and Bilal Muhammad -- were found lying in the street, police said.
Besides the five shooting incidents, it's unclear whether further criminal incidents are connected to the string of shootings, Moore said.
McClanahan said the violence has an impact on the community as a whole. In cases where a victim does not cooperate with police, he said the department often appeals to the public for any information related to the crime.
"It is a process," McClanahan said. "And we need people to contribute to that process, and if they don't do so, that's going to decrease our likelihood of getting an arrest and conviction."
Metro on 04/04/2017