West Memphis police arrested a suspect on Tuesday in the shooting death of a Forrest City police officer, but they had the wrong man.
Surveillance video showed the man was at a carwash at the time of the shooting on Saturday afternoon, said Capt. Joe Baker of the West Memphis Police Department.
"We had two eyewitnesses that were very positive about it being him, but they were eyewitnesses while bullets were flying," Baker said.
Police were still looking Tuesday afternoon for at least two people who fired shots from inside a car at a group of men in the parking lot of a West Memphis apartment complex, Baker said.
He said about 10 bullets hit the apartment occupied by Oliver Johnson Jr., a 25-year-old officer in the Forrest City Police Department.
One of those bullets killed Johnson.
"He was inside on his couch, and he was struck while he was inside spending time with his family," Baker said.
Baker said Johnson wasn't the target of the shooting.
"It was a shooting that occurred in the parking lot and sadly his apartment was the backdrop for the bullets flying," he said.
Baker said some of the bullets went through Johnson's apartment window. Others went through the wooden wall.
Johnson's two children were in the apartment, but nobody else was shot, Baker said.
"I believe I heard an account that several other children were inside also playing," Baker said. "There were multiple children in the apartment."
Johnson had recently accepted a job in the West Memphis Police Department, said his aunt, Serenia Curtis of West Memphis.
He had been driving to work every day in Forrest City, 38 miles to the west.
"He was a very well-mannered young man," Curtis said.
"He was raising two girls. When he wasn't on duty, he was taking care of his family. He wasn't out running on the street. He had a very bright future.
"He followed his dreams. He became the police officer that he dreamt of becoming. And it all was taken away by senseless gun violence."
In a March 27 post on his Facebook page, Johnson wrote, "I grew up without a role model and I almost failed at life. I got to make sure the ones around me have something to look up to."
Baker said the case is still under investigation. He said that over the weekend a group from the east side of town was feuding with a group on the west side of town.
He said it appeared all the shots were fired by the east-side group.
"We don't have any information that any shots were returned," he said.
A gofundme account has been set up to raise money for the family. "His benefits are limited because this was not considered a line-of-duty death by the insurance companies," according to the website.
Lt. Darren Smith of the Forrest City Police Department said officers there are supposed to respond if they see or hear criminal activity, and Johnson may have done that on Saturday.
"The Forrest City Police Department has a policy in place that says an officer has a duty to act whether he is technically off duty or not," said Smith.
"And I believe, just like any officer, if he saw a disturbance he would act accordingly."
Arkansas Code 21-5-704 indicates the state will pay $50,000 to the beneficiary, spouse or children of any "covered" public officer killed in the line of duty. Under Arkansas Code 21-5-705, the state will pay an additional $150,000 to the beneficiary, spouse or children of a police officer killed in the line of duty.
Smith said Johnson has a fiancee, and they were to marry this year. He said Johnson had been with the Forrest City department for 2½ years.
"Patrolman Johnson was a very upfront and a very unique person," said Smith. "He was an individual who was trustworthy. He was an individual who you could give a task to and he would ensure that the task would be accomplished. He was the type of individual who would get out of his police car and would get on the basketball court and play basketball with the kids. He did more shaking hands than he did writing tickets."
Metro on 05/02/2018