Police reports show at least five people were injured in a series of unrelated Little Rock shootings in recent days.
Three of the shooting victims were directly hit by gunfire, another had been grazed and a fifth man was not shot but suffered injuries in his hip and hand while fleeing a shooting, according to police reports related to the four shootings.
The weekend violence stands in contrast to a decrease in the number of homicides and non-fatal shooting victims from mid-August through the end of September, a lull in violence that coincided with the implementation of increased patrol from Little Rock police. Yet, Little Rock Police Department officials have stopped short of saying the increased patrols were the sole cause of the decrease in violence.
Lt. Steve McClanahan, a Little Rock police spokesman, said police do not believe any of the four shootings are related to each other.
Little Rock police are also investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred early Saturday. According to the department, a man died after he was shot by police and the vehicle he was driving crashed through a brick wall outside the Prospect Building located at 1501 N. University Ave.
The first of the four other shootings came on Friday night and was reported after a Benton man drove himself to the UAMS Medical Center, according to a police report.
The report said Ricky Stokes, who turns 24 years old today, had been shot but did not have life-threatening injuries.
Stokes initially told police that the shooting happened in the parking lot of a gas station on South University Avenue. According to the report, Stokes later recanted the statement and said he was actually shot while trying to buy marijuana from a person near the intersection of Jefferson and West 12th streets.
The report said the shooting occurred around 8:45 p.m. Friday.
According to Stokes, he was inside a vehicle when another man pulled out a pistol and began reaching into the vehicle while attempting to fire the weapon. Both began to wrestle over the pistol, and the firearm went off during the struggle, Stokes told police. The 24-year-old man was hit in the upper left thigh and left pinky finger, according to the report.
Stokes told police that after being shot, he grabbed his own pistol and fired one time at his attacker. The gunman then dropped his pistol and fled the scene, Stokes told police. Stokes picked up the man's pistol and put it in the vehicle's glove box before driving himself to the hospital, the report said.
Hours later, at around 12:15 a.m. Saturday, police were on a call at 5921 Baseline Road when 30-year-old Jeavon Perry pulled up and said he had been shot, according to a report.
Emergency medical personnel took the man to UAMS Medical Hospital for treatment. According to the report, Perry had mumbled about meeting an unidentified black man at an apartment complex located at 9101 Auxor Road. The report said Perry recalled that the man shot him before fleeing the scene.
"Perry was unable to give any other information while at the hospital due to being in too much pain," according to the report. Officers went to the Auxor Road location but were not able to find a crime scene.
Medical staff said a bullet went through his bone, according to the report.
In another shooting, 20-year-old Darin Brown of Little Rock said that he had been shot at a residence after a fight. According to the report, the incident occurred Saturday around 7:20 p.m., but the call time related to the incident was listed as Sunday at 12:15 a.m.
Brown told police that an individual named "Rickey" entered a home in the 3800 block of Arapaho Trail and held a gun to his stomach, prompting the victim to push the weapon away and "tussle" with the assailant.
As Brown walked to his vehicle, the gun wielder started shooting at him, he said. Bullets grazed the 20-year-old's right thigh and right ankle, the report states.
In the last of the four shootings, police on Saturday evening found a shooting victim at 13 Daven Court, according to the report. The victim, 41-year-old Sandy Wright, told police he was walking on Lancaster Road when he heard gunshots and began running, only to be hit by the gunfire.
Wright had an apparent gunshot wound in his hand. Another man, 18-year-old Jeremiah Hardy, said he and Wright were walking when they heard the gunshots. Hardy scraped his hip and hand while fleeing the gunshots, but was not hit, the report said.
Emergency medical personnel took both men to UAMS Medical Center, police said. Neither had life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Information for this article was contributed by Brandon Riddle of Arkansas Online.
Metro on 10/10/2017