Man killed by Arkansas officers had criminal past, police say

A man whom West Memphis police officers fatally shot Saturday after he drew a weapon on them had a criminal history in Indiana that included sexual assault and armed robbery, authorities said.

Police shot and killed Olugbalah Ridley, 33, of Indianapolis Saturday morning after, they say, he robbed the America's Best Value Inn at 2411 E. Service Road in West Memphis.

No police were injured.

West Memphis Police Chief Donald Oakes said Ridley robbed the motel at 7 a.m. and then ran through a field to the nearby SteepleChase Apartments at Wheeler Avenue and North 24th Street. Officers saw Ridley and approached him, the chief said.

"He pointed a weapon at two officers," Oakes said. "They ordered him to drop it, and he lowered it toward them when he was shot."

Ridley was pronounced dead at the apartment complex, Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said.

Oakes would not name the officers involved in the shooting. He said they are on paid administrative leave pending a state police investigation.

Mariah McCoy, the property manager at the apartments, said video taken from the complex's security cameras Saturday morning shows Ridley running to the apartment office. It was closed, she said.

"It looked like he was scoping out the office and thinking about breaking in," McCoy said.

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The video shows Ridley leaving the office and running to a vacant apartment across the lot. He kicked open the door and entered, she said.

"The police pulled up right after that," she said. "They were fresh on his tracks. They surrounded him."

She said the video shows police approaching Ridley at the apartment. They were only a few feet apart when Ridley pointed his weapon and drew the officers' fire, McCoy said.

"If he didn't pull that gun, it could have ended differently," she said.

Oakes said Ridley had been charged with robbery and kidnapping in December, when police said he robbed a man making a business deposit of $15,000 at an Indianapolis bank. He was later arrested when he crashed his car while trying to flee from police, authorities say.

He was convicted in 2008 of sexual assault in Marion County, Ind., and was listed as an offender on the Indiana sex offender registry on June 5, 2014.

Sadler said authorities sent Ridley's body to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for autopsy. Special agents with the state police's criminal investigation division will review the shooting and present their findings to 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington to determine if deadly force was justified.

A preliminary investigation by the West Memphis Police Department indicated the shooting was warranted.

"He lowered the weapon," Oakes said. "He wasn't going to jail. You don't point a gun at police without unfortunate results."

State Desk on 04/18/2017

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