In 15 Little Rock killings, kin awaiting relief

Police still seek clues in 2016 cases

It took six months, countless pleas for information and a $50,000 reward for Little Rock police to make an arrest in the fatal shooting of 2-year-old Ramiya Reed.

The case that began the night of Nov. 22 was cleared, as homicide detectives say, when Larry Jackson, 17, and Deshaun Rushing, 21, were both arrested on capital-murder charges last week.

The two are accused of shooting into a vehicle on South Harrison Street and killing Ramiya, who was sitting in the back seat with her mother.

Rokiya Williams, Ramiya's mother, said in a phone interview that she and her family were relieved that police had made arrests in her daughter's death.

Other families are still waiting for that relief.

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Fifteen of the 42 homicides in Little Rock last year remained unsolved as of Friday, according to police.

The oldest of those open cases is the killing of 19-year-old Junius Pitts. He was slain Jan. 31, 2016, when someone in a white sedan pulled up next to him in the 5400 block of Asher Avenue and opened fire, according to police.

The other unsolved cases include the killing of Mikhal Bailey, 22, who was shot to death while riding a stolen motorcycle in July; the death of Robert Hunter, 26, who was found fatally shot inside his apartment in September; and the killing in November of Jesus Pena, 59, a self-employed contractor shot to death in a robbery at an apartment complex on North Taylor Street.

Pena's daughter Lupe said the months since her father's death have been filled with uncertainty. She said she calls detectives for updates on the case but rarely hears back. She wonders if investigators have done all they can to find her father's killer. And she wonders whether there's anything she can do to help.

"I do have the patience to wait it out," Lupe Pena said. "But I would also ask of the Police Department that they remember our story, that they remember those other people."

Police spokesman Steve Moore said the number of unsolved cases fluctuates from year to year but that the tally for 2016 is "higher than we want it to be."

He said he takes some responsibility for that. Moore was a homicide detective, as he'd been for most of his 32-year career with the department, before he became a spokesman in March.

He described the homicide unit as one in transition. Moore isn't the only veteran detective who recently left the eight-person unit.

Detective Tommy Hudson retired this year after more than 10 years in the unit. Detective Kevin Simpson, who had investigated killings in the city for 16 years, transferred to another unit. The unit's commander for more than a decade, Glenn King, retired as a lieutenant last year.

New homicide detectives have come from the Police Department's violent crimes division, which investigates nonfatal cases. Moore said they're experienced investigators but that they have to go through additional training and catch up on open investigations.

Other things take longer to learn.

"The thing you can never explain is how different homicide is," Moore said. "The time that it takes. The dedication that it takes. How much it takes over your life."

In all of the open homicide cases from 2016, those who were killed were men. Their ages range from 17 to 69. The dead include whites, blacks and Hispanics. All but one were shot to death.

Moore said he remembers names and dates from several of those unsolved killings.

"Everybody in [the homicide unit] fully understands the frustration that some of these families have," he said.

Lupe Pena, 35, said her mother, three brothers and three sisters have dealt with her father's killing in different ways. Sometimes they'll recall a joke he told and share a laugh. Other times, a gift from him, or a photo, will bring a rush of memories and emotion.

"It's weird what triggers you," she said.

Pena said the killing was especially hard for one of her brothers, Edgar, who had worked with their father. She said it was "too rough" for Edgar to keep working at J. Pena Home Services, a company their father started in California and continued when the family moved to Little Rock in 1998.

Edgar moved to Arizona a few months after the killing, she said.

Lupe Pena said the arrests last week in Ramiya's death made her wonder, again, when the person who killed her father will be arrested. The toddler and Jesus Pena were killed the same day.

"For the safety of other people, I genuinely want this person to be caught," she said. "Not because I want them to be punished. I don't need to see them punished. But I do need to feel that my community is safe."

It's unclear how police developed Jackson and Rushing as suspects in Ramiya's killing. Little Rock District Court has sealed probable-cause affidavits filed in the case.

Moore said that just because police haven't arrested someone in a homicide doesn't mean detectives don't know who was involved. He said detectives are often quietly searching for witnesses and examining evidence -- working to build a case.

If a case stalls, Moore said, police might do something to "stir it up," such as release new details on the killing, announce a reward, or publicly ask for witnesses to come forward.

Sometimes the phone rings, sometimes it doesn't.

For certain unsolved homicides, the Police Department has organized a four-person cold-case unit of retired detectives. The group is scheduled to begin working part time in June.

Police said investigations into the 15 unsolved killings from 2016 are ongoing.

Other cases include the killing of Larry Williams, 42, who was found fatally shot Feb. 26, 2016, inside a home on East Eighth Street; the death in June of Pedro Camarillo, 48, who was sitting in a car on Hazel Street when a man dressed in black approached the vehicle and shot him; and Gary Jackson, 42, who died after being shot in November by someone traveling in a green car on John Barrow Road, according to police reports.

Moore said it's impossible to predict how long any homicide case stays open.

"It may go quiet for weeks or months," he said. "And then one day you get a phone call."

A Section on 05/29/2017

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