Police on Thursday released new details on an officer-involved shooting that injured one person Wednesday in Little Rock.
Police identified officer Ralph Breshears, a 26-year veteran of the department, as the officer who shot Rudy Lionard Avila, 22, in the parking lot of a shopping center at Chenal Parkway and West Markham Street. Officers encountered Avila at 1:07 p.m. after security guards at The Home Depot had detained Avila for shoplifting, according to a police report.
Avila ran from officers and stole a car in the drive-thru lane at a Chick-fil-A restaurant nearby, police said. Breshears shot Avila after Avila refused to stop the vehicle and drove toward police, according to the report.
Police said Avila of Little Rock was shot in his arm multiple times. He was taken to Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock with nonlife-threatening injuries.
Police Department spokesman Steve Moore said Thursday that charges against Avila are pending. Avila was not listed on the Pulaski County jail roster.
Court records show that Avila was convicted of robbery and theft of property in 2014.
Breshears, 55, was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday pending an investigation, in accordance with department policy.
A police report released Thursday states that officers had handcuffed Avila before he fled from the The Home Depot. Avila "managed to get out of his handcuffs" as officers chased him across the parking lot toward Chick-fil-A, according to the report.
Avila then forced Adrian Harris, 23, out of her Chevrolet Malibu and tried to drive away, police reported. Avila, officers said, ignored police commands to stop the vehicle and "drove the stolen car towards officers in a threatening manner."
Police said that's when Breshears opened fire.
Avila continued to drive until a bystander, identified by police as Tim Lincoln, 50, crashed into the stolen car with his Jeep Wrangler.
Police on Thursday declined to comment on the case. The department cited an ongoing investigation.
The Little Rock police use-of-force policy prohibits officers from shooting at moving vehicles unless "it is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person."
The policy also bans officers from positioning themselves in front of oncoming vehicles.
"When confronted by a moving vehicle, officers will move out of its path, rather than fire at the vehicle," the policy states.
A photo of the Chevrolet Malibu taken after Avila was shot Wednesday shows three bullet holes in the front passenger-side window.
The shooting Wednesday is at least the third involving Breshears in his career at the Little Rock Police Department.
He was a narcotics detective in 1997 when he and another officer, Todd Hurd, fatally shot two armed men while executing a search-and-seizure warrant at a house on South Schiller Street. Police identified the men killed as Patrick Harris, 33, and Gary McFadden, 30.
Prosecutors cleared Breshears and Hurd of any wrongdoing in the killings.
In 1995, Breshears fired shots when a drug raid at an apartment on Butler Road turned into a gunfight. He did not hit anyone, nor was he injured. But officer Joseph Tucker Fisher, 34, was killed in the shootout. Another officer, Frederick Lee, 26, was shot in the head and critically injured.
Willie Leon Green, then 22 years old, was convicted of first-degree murder in the case and sentenced to life in prison.
The shooting Wednesday is the fourth involving a Little Rock police officer this year.
Each remains under investigation.
Metro on 07/21/2017