3 killings put LR toll at 32 for year ’06 now eclipsing ’93’s record pace
BY JIM BROOKS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
A deadly year in the capital city got even deadlier on Monday with the discovery of two men shot to death in a southwest Little Rock park and a third shot to death at a nearby apartment complex, bringing the homicide total to 32 for 2006, slightly ahead of the city’s record pace for killings more than a decade ago.
Police identified the victims found in Hindman Park as cousins Monte Johnson, 21, and Sean Johnson, 18, both black men from Little Rock.
No arrests had been made in the Hindman Park slayings by Monday evening.
The third homicide of the day came at 9:54 p.m. at 6320 Butler Road, in the Berwyn Square Apartments, on the east side of South University Avenue. Hindman Park lies to the west. Little information was available Monday night as police officers cordoned off the crime scene and began their investigation.
Police did say a large number of people were fighting in the parking lot before the shooting. Officers arrived to find a Hispanic man dead in the parking lot. Witnesses re- ported seeing a white car leaving the scene.
The double homicide came a day after a black man was shot to death a few blocks away.
On Sunday morning, police were called to 7423 Marcia Drive, where they found Arture Thompson, 27, behind the wheel of a silver Honda Civic parked in the driveway. He had been shot once, police said.
No arrests had been made in Thompson’s shooting, and police were looking into whether that slaying is related to the double homicide.
“We don’t know if this is related to the homicide from Sunday, but because of the proximity, we have to investigate that possibility,” Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Hastings said.
The recent surge in homicides - five in the past six days - puts Little Rock slightly ahead of the pace recorded in 1993, when 76 homicides were investigated by police in all.
Through the same period last year, only 12 homicides had been recorded.
Little Rock isn’t the only Southern city experiencing a jump in the number of homicides.
“Join the club,” said Memphis Police Department spokesman Sgt. Vince Higgins. “As of today [Monday] our 2006 homicide total is 71, compared to the same day last year when we had 55.”
In Tulsa, 32 homicides have been recorded so far this year.
“We’re probably a little ahead of where we were last year at this time,” Officer Scott Walton said.
Closer to home, Pine Bluff also is going through an upsurge in the number of homicides, with 10 so far this year, compared with only four through the same period last year.
Little Rock authorities have held several news conferences on the matter and have responded to the increase in homicides by flooding some high-crime neighborhoods with officers during the evening hours. However, they emphasize, statistics show that the overall violent crime rate is well below the 1993 levels.
The Rev. Hezekiah Stewart, executive director of the Watershed Human Development Project, said the jump in the city’s homicides this year could be traced to “a lot of stress and frustration out there,” but said the solution lies in the human heart.
“This is a spiritual battle first of all,” Stewart said.
“We have to get back to teaching respect and integrity and how to trust people,” Stewart said. “We have to show people in crisis situations where hope lies, and we have to learn how to motivate and inspire people into ways out of their crisis situations.”
Stewart said education is the key to relieving the circumstances that allow crime to flourish in a community.
“We have to really work hard at getting our people’s minds involved in learning and achieving and building self-esteem through accomplishments,” he said.
Jeff Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, believes the rise in homicides in the capital may be traced to a number of factors, including the overcrowded jail situation in Pulaski County and changes in the Little Rock’s drug market.
The jail is operating this year with 245 fewer beds than last year, the result of a budget shortfall. For that reason, the facility has been closed for much of the year, and misdemeanor inmates have been either released early or not incarcerated at all.
Police have said drugs are playing a role in many of the city’s homicides this year. None of the identified victims in the Sunday or Monday homicides had any record of drug arrests with the Little Rock Police Department, however.
In the cousins’ deaths, a motorist driving through the park Monday spotted the two bodies and called police.
The two men were found lying on opposite sides of the street, one man just off the pavement, the other near a tree in the park. Both men were shot multiple times, police said.
More than a dozen evidence markers lay on the ground, indicating the location of spent shell casings and other pieces of evidence.
Nearby, a construction crew working on a new low-water bridge leading into the Hindman Golf Course parking lot watched with interest as investigators and crime scene specialists did their jobs.
Curious golfers craned their necks as they headed up the driveway to the course.
Detectives fanned out, some driving to a row of houses on the heights above the park, looking to see whether the men might have run down the hill into the park.
Others combed the hillside for clues while still more detectives interviewed bystanders who approached the crime scene tape looking at the bodies.
“It’s hard to know if they were running from someone or if they were shot right here,” Hastings said.
This story was published Tuesday, June 06, 2006
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
A deadly year in the capital city got even deadlier on Monday with the discovery of two men shot to death in a southwest Little Rock park and a third shot to death at a nearby apartment complex, bringing the homicide total to 32 for 2006, slightly ahead of the city’s record pace for killings more than a decade ago.
Police identified the victims found in Hindman Park as cousins Monte Johnson, 21, and Sean Johnson, 18, both black men from Little Rock.
No arrests had been made in the Hindman Park slayings by Monday evening.
The third homicide of the day came at 9:54 p.m. at 6320 Butler Road, in the Berwyn Square Apartments, on the east side of South University Avenue. Hindman Park lies to the west. Little information was available Monday night as police officers cordoned off the crime scene and began their investigation.
Police did say a large number of people were fighting in the parking lot before the shooting. Officers arrived to find a Hispanic man dead in the parking lot. Witnesses re- ported seeing a white car leaving the scene.
The double homicide came a day after a black man was shot to death a few blocks away.
On Sunday morning, police were called to 7423 Marcia Drive, where they found Arture Thompson, 27, behind the wheel of a silver Honda Civic parked in the driveway. He had been shot once, police said.
No arrests had been made in Thompson’s shooting, and police were looking into whether that slaying is related to the double homicide.
“We don’t know if this is related to the homicide from Sunday, but because of the proximity, we have to investigate that possibility,” Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Hastings said.
The recent surge in homicides - five in the past six days - puts Little Rock slightly ahead of the pace recorded in 1993, when 76 homicides were investigated by police in all.
Through the same period last year, only 12 homicides had been recorded.
Little Rock isn’t the only Southern city experiencing a jump in the number of homicides.
“Join the club,” said Memphis Police Department spokesman Sgt. Vince Higgins. “As of today [Monday] our 2006 homicide total is 71, compared to the same day last year when we had 55.”
In Tulsa, 32 homicides have been recorded so far this year.
“We’re probably a little ahead of where we were last year at this time,” Officer Scott Walton said.
Closer to home, Pine Bluff also is going through an upsurge in the number of homicides, with 10 so far this year, compared with only four through the same period last year.
Little Rock authorities have held several news conferences on the matter and have responded to the increase in homicides by flooding some high-crime neighborhoods with officers during the evening hours. However, they emphasize, statistics show that the overall violent crime rate is well below the 1993 levels.
The Rev. Hezekiah Stewart, executive director of the Watershed Human Development Project, said the jump in the city’s homicides this year could be traced to “a lot of stress and frustration out there,” but said the solution lies in the human heart.
“This is a spiritual battle first of all,” Stewart said.
“We have to get back to teaching respect and integrity and how to trust people,” Stewart said. “We have to show people in crisis situations where hope lies, and we have to learn how to motivate and inspire people into ways out of their crisis situations.”
Stewart said education is the key to relieving the circumstances that allow crime to flourish in a community.
“We have to really work hard at getting our people’s minds involved in learning and achieving and building self-esteem through accomplishments,” he said.
Jeff Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, believes the rise in homicides in the capital may be traced to a number of factors, including the overcrowded jail situation in Pulaski County and changes in the Little Rock’s drug market.
The jail is operating this year with 245 fewer beds than last year, the result of a budget shortfall. For that reason, the facility has been closed for much of the year, and misdemeanor inmates have been either released early or not incarcerated at all.
Police have said drugs are playing a role in many of the city’s homicides this year. None of the identified victims in the Sunday or Monday homicides had any record of drug arrests with the Little Rock Police Department, however.
In the cousins’ deaths, a motorist driving through the park Monday spotted the two bodies and called police.
The two men were found lying on opposite sides of the street, one man just off the pavement, the other near a tree in the park. Both men were shot multiple times, police said.
More than a dozen evidence markers lay on the ground, indicating the location of spent shell casings and other pieces of evidence.
Nearby, a construction crew working on a new low-water bridge leading into the Hindman Golf Course parking lot watched with interest as investigators and crime scene specialists did their jobs.
Curious golfers craned their necks as they headed up the driveway to the course.
Detectives fanned out, some driving to a row of houses on the heights above the park, looking to see whether the men might have run down the hill into the park.
Others combed the hillside for clues while still more detectives interviewed bystanders who approached the crime scene tape looking at the bodies.
“It’s hard to know if they were running from someone or if they were shot right here,” Hastings said.
This story was published Tuesday, June 06, 2006
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