Little Rock teen killed in 1 of 7 gunfire incidents

Shots injure 2 people, damage homes

Driving his red Hyundai Sonata, Jatyrian Lovelace grew lost through a Little Rock neighborhood Saturday afternoon. The 20-year-old was on his way to a Little Rock church, where an educator had organized a gathering for her old students, he said.

Then, while he was behind the wheel, gunfire rang out.

"So I hit the gas, and got on out of there," he said in an interview Monday, recalling how it had taken him a few moments to register that he had been shot at. He said the gunfire hit his car, but left him and his sound system unscathed.

The shooting was one of at least seven incidents of gunfire that stretched from Saturday to early Monday, according to reports released Monday by the Little Rock Police Department.

[INTERACTIVE MAP: Search all killings in Little Rock, North Little Rock this year]

Homes were hit by gunfire, and two teenagers were wounded in separate shootings. A Little Rock Central High School student was found dead near the loading docks of a Kroger grocery store on the city's east side.

Police found 17-year-old Chris Arnold with an apparent gunshot wound early Monday after being called to the 2500 block of Springer Boulevard for a report of a subject down, according to a department statement. Officers found him lying on the sidewalk near loading docks to the Kroger at 1100 E. Roosevelt Road, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A school district spokesman confirmed Arnold's student status.

The first of the seven gunfire incidents came midday Saturday, when Little Rock officers were dispatched to the Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock for a report of a shooting.

The 15-year-old victim told police he "heard a gun shot from a distance and then felt his left leg hurt," according to the report. The boy told police he was bleeding, so he ran home and informed his mother.

His mother, according to the report, said her son had been shot in the leg while walking home, and she reported that she had driven him to the Little Rock hospital.

According to the report, the teenage victim told police the incident occurred around 13101 Baseline Road.

Later that day, around 1:35 p.m., Lovelace and an 18-year-old man were riding in a vehicle when they were shot at, according to a police report.

In that incident, a report said Little Rock officers were called to the area for a report of shots fired. They found several spent shell casings in the street and yard in front of 1616 W. 24th St.

The home is the listed residence of Mini Muhammad, the mother of former Razorback football player Darren McFadden. The West 24th Street house has been shot multiple times in the past year and a half, records show.

In November 2016, a man was injured in a drive-by shooting while sitting on the front porch of the house, witnesses told police.

Then last April, police responded to the area of West 24th and Marshall streets for a report of shots fired and found several rounds in the intersection, according to a report. Police found that several rounds had hit the West 24th street home and discovered a man had been wounded in the drive-by shooting and taken to a hospital, the report says.

Little Rock police have previously said those two shootings were among a series of connected shootings that spanned from September 2016 to April 2017.

In Saturday's incident, police said, people around the residence refused to cooperate with the investigation, and crime scene specialists were not allowed entry to process a vehicle, according to the report.

The incident report shows police found more than a dozen spent shell casings at the scene. A stray bullet also hit the house at 2322 Battery St., the report says. The report noted that some of the residents in the area "are known to be involved with gun violence."

Early Sunday, officers responded to UAMS Medical Center for a report of a shooting victim who had walked into the emergency room, according to a report. The 17-year-old shooting victim told police he had left his house on West 11th Street and headed in the direction of Pic-Pac Liquor on West 12th Street.

The victim said he heard about four to five gunshots while walking and then began to run, according to the report. The victim told police he ran to the hospital from the intersection of 11th and Madison streets.

The report said the 17-year-old had a "severe laceration" from a bullet, which appeared to have grazed his hand.

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Metro on 01/30/2018

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