FAYETTEVILLE — Police on Wednesday arrested a Fayetteville man in connection with the shooting death of another man.
Zachary Ross Clark, 32, of 3130 E. Huntsville Road, was arrested in connection with second-degree murder/manslaughter and tampering with physical evidence. Clark was being held Thursday at the Washington County Detention Center in lieu of $750,000 bond. Arraignment is set for March 1 in Washington County Circuit Court.
Prosecutors will file formal charges at a later date. Arraignment is set for March 1 in Washington County Circuit Court.
Officers arrived at Clark’s home just after 1 p.m. Wednesday in response to a call of a shooting, according to a social media post from Fayetteville police. Investigators found Thomas McEnaney, 23, of Springdale dead at the property.
Police believe Clark shot McEnaney the day before they responded to the call, the post states.
A preliminary report obtained from Fayetteville police said Clark’s wife, Emily Clark called 911 about 1 p.m. Wednesday to report that her husband, Zachary Clark had shot someone Tuesday afternoon and the body was still on the property.
Emily Clark told dispatchers the unknown male had threatened her husband.
She said the gun was in a shed on the property and she believed the victim was the boyfriend of a female they knew.
Emily Clark said the vehicle the man was driving was backed into the woods near their driveway.
She said she called 911 after realizing that Zachary Clark had not called police to report and resolve the situation.
When police arrive on scene, Zachary Clark walked out of the house with his hands in the air. He told police the victim had showed up in the car that was backed into the woods and that he panicked and shot the man. He said he then moved the body to a barn on the property and made his family leave.
“I did the dumbest thing in my life,” Zachary Clark told officers, according to the report.
Clark told police he thought the person he shot was someone else when the man showed up on the property.
Clark offered to show police where the body was, but they told him they would check themselves, according to the report. Officers walked to the barn where they found a dead man lying on a rotten mattress on the floor of the barn.
Police asked Clark if he knew the dead man’s name and he told police he did not know the man.
While being processed at the Police Department, Clark told police the clothes he was wearing at the time were in a shed on the property along with the gun he had used.
Clark was then transported to the Washington County Detention Center.
A search of court records showed no prior charges against Clark, but a woman did obtain a temporary order of protection against him in Washington County Circuit Court in late November 2022. That order was dismissed less than a month later.