Little Rock police are investigating a double homicide after finding two dead men in a vehicle in an alleyway between Broadway and Arch Street early Tuesday, according to a news release.
Officers were called just before 4:45 a.m. to investigate a suspicious vehicle and found a Ford Explorer with the two victims inside, the release said.
Detectives are investigating to determine if the deaths occurred in the alleyway, which is in the 3300 block of the two streets, or if the victims were moved there, according to the news release.
The release does not mention a cause or manner of death, and the bodies have not been identified.
The homicides are the fourth and fifth in Little Rock since Saturday.
Two people, Porcha Gibson, 39, and Jarvis Washington, 28, were killed Sunday. Gibson was found dead at the Spanish Jon Apartments on West 65th Street. Police were directed to the apartment by Washington, who was at a local hospital being treated for gunshot wounds. He later died of his injuries.
On Saturday night, Kiero Turner, 33, was found dead in a vehicle on South Monroe Street after a report of a shooting. Her husband was wounded in the gunfire.
The recent uptick in slayings has not gone unnoticed by members of the community.
Although he didn't attribute the string of homicides to the pandemic lockdown, Benny Johnson, founder of Arkansas Stop the Violence, said there is an increasing problem with people holding grudges against others in the community.
"We've got to settle our differences without any kind of weapon," Johnson said. "We can talk things out. I know when I was younger if you had a problem or you had a fight, you can turn around shake hands and be friends the same day. Now, you've gotten to the point where if you have a fight, you've got to look over your shoulder."
Johnson considers it a love and respect problem. He said church and community leaders should be more active.
"I know we have a pandemic going on right now," Johnson said. "Our churches need to get more involved in our community. Let's get out and go and greet our community."
Johnson said people should think about the ramifications of their actions before they take them.
"The Bible says 'be angry, but sin not,'" Johnson said. "You can be angry. There's nothing wrong with being angry, but don't let it lead to violence. Don't let it lead you to do something you'll regret."
An act of violence can lead to the loss of life for the victim and for the perpetrator, who will spend a long time in jail, he said.
"Once a life is lost, you can't take it back," Johnson said. "In time, you lose two people. You lose one to the graveyard and one to incarceration, and it doesn't have to be that way."
Little Rock police are monitoring the uptick in homicides for any connection to the coronavirus or other common denominators, according to spokesman Eric Barnes.
"It's always something we're going to look into," Barnes said. "One of the hardest things is whenever you have incidents that are completely unrelated that we believe are, you have to look into each one of those and try to figure out what they're stemming from and previous knowledge we can gain from it to try to see if there's any reason for it."
Metro on 04/22/2020