Jogger on NLR trail flees her assailant
A woman was hit in the face and pulled toward the woods while jogging on Overbrook Trail in North Little Rock, police said.
The victim was on the walking trail about 11:30 a.m. Sunday when she encountered a male who she thought was about to wave at her, North Little Rock Police Department Sgt. Brian Dedrick said.
Instead of waving, he hit her twice in the face, then tried to pull her toward a wooded area nearby, police said.
The woman ran away from her assailant and called police, authorities said. Dedrick said emergency medical services personnel treated the victim for minor injuries when they arrived. Her cellphone was also damaged during the assault, he said.
Dedrick said the woman never saw the male holding a gun but that he "implied that he had one." The victim described her assailant as a slender, black male who stood about 5-foot-6 and wore a red shirt.
That part of the trail is about 150 feet away from 5100 North Hills Blvd.
Dedrick said the Overbrook Trail assault may be related to several other crimes, the earliest of which occurred March 17.
In one of the previous crimes, a male with the same description entered a vehicle in the Lakewood Village neighborhood in which two women were sitting.
Run off road, Jeep stolen, driver says
A 31-year-old Little Rock man told investigators a car ran him off the road early Saturday in Little Rock before its armed occupants chased him on foot and then took off in his vehicle.
The victim said he was leaving northbound Interstate 430 for Colonel Glenn Road around 3:45 a.m. when he noticed a dark-green sedan "approaching him at a high rate of speed," according to a Little Rock Police Department report.
The victim said the car chased him and ultimately ran his Jeep Cherokee off the road, though he wasn't sure the exact location, according to the report. He then ran from his vehicle as an "unknown number of armed subjects" got out and began chasing him, the report said.
The victim eventually escaped, but at least one of the assailants left in his vehicle, police said. The victim said he didn't know the men "or why they targeted him," the report said.
No arrests have been made.
2 robbers take Kia, $780, strand woman
An Arkansas woman was left on a dirt road after two armed robbers forced her to withdraw hundreds of dollars from an ATM in Little Rock and then stole her car, officials said.
The 27-year-old woman from Perryville pulled into the parking lot of her workplace at a Verizon call center off Riverfront Drive around 11:10 a.m. Friday, officer Robbie Hinman wrote in a report.
When she got out of her vehicle, a man wielding an assault rifle came up behind her and forced her back inside the red 2013 Kia Forte, the report said. He got in the Forte's backseat and another person with a small silver pistol got in the passenger seat, the victim told police.
The robbers forced her to drive to an Arvest Bank ATM at 500 Broadway and make two withdrawals from both of her debit cards, totaling $780, the report said. Then they directed her to a dirt road off of Dixon Road south of Little Rock, where they forced her out of the car before fleeing in it, the victim told police.
The woman's cellphone was in the car when it was stolen, she said.
Police reportedly contacted the Verizon call center about getting security footage from the parking lot.
No suspects were named on the report.
Walking from IHOP, waiter is robbed
A waiter at a west Little Rock IHOP was robbed at gunpoint of cash while he walked from the restaurant, authorities said.
It happened about 2:20 a.m. Saturday on Hermitage Road near the restaurant's location there, which is just off Chenal Parkway.
The 20-year-old victim told investigators he was walking west from his workplace toward Wal-Mart when a tan, four-door Honda pulled up and the driver asked for a cigarette, according to a Little Rock Police Department report.
The victim reportedly gave the man a cigarette and then, after being asked, told him he was a waiter at IHOP.
"The driver then stated, 'Oh, so you got that money,'" the report said, noting the driver then pulled out a gun and demanded "everything" the victim had.
The car fled west on Hermitage after the victim handed over his cash, the report said.
The robber was described as a black man who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs around 235 pounds. He was wearing a white T-shirt and bluejeans.
Two other people were also in the vehicle, though the report listed a detailed description for only one of them: a black man is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. He was said to be wearing a white T-shirt and black pants and to have very few teeth, according to the report.
No arrests had been made at the time of the report.
Metro on 04/18/2017