LITTLE ROCK — Sherwood resident Larry Staley fears he may have shot a would-be burglar Tuesday morning, but he holds tightly to the hope that the man died when he slipped and fell into Gap Creek.
Police are investigating the event in which Staley - whose home on Arkansas 107 has been a frequent target of burglars - fired several shots in the direction of an intruder in hisbackyard early Tuesday. Though police found nothing when they searched the area just after the shots were fired, his wife discovered a body Tuesday afternoon in the creek along the edge of the family's property.
"I'm very much afraid that I shot the man," Staley said Wednesday.
Sherwood police spokesman Ryan Baker identified the man as Bryant Cross, 18, of McAlmont but said investigators have not verified his involvement in the burglary attempt and are awaiting autopsy results.
Tuesday night, the Pulaski County coroner's office verifiedthat the death is being investigated as a homicide. On Wednesday, Coroner Mark Malcolm said the autopsy results will be delayed because of a backlog of pending autopsies.
In the interim, Staley said, he is trying to make sense of what happened.
"I'm very confused as to how the man got there and when," the former Marine said. "I certainly wasn't trying to deliberately take a life."
Staley said Wednesday thathis family has been the target of burglars five times since February 2006. In July, he and his wife, Erlene, fired shots over the heads of a group of burglars attempting to steal the family's four-wheelers.
Around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Erlene Staley woke to see two men running from their garage, Larry Staley said. She stayed awake to watch the yard. When they returned 10 minutes later, she woke her husband and called 911.
Staley said he went to the backdoor with a .22 pistol in hand and saw a black man in a black-hooded shirt walking toward his shed and a white man standing at the back corner of the house.
Suddenly, he said, the white man ran toward him. The man kept running when he told him to freeze, so, Staley said, he fired a few shots into the tops of a stand of pine trees in his backyard. When the man crossed Gap Creek and ran up an embankment, Staley said he fired a few more shots several feet to the left of the man, into the embankment.
According to police, four Sherwood officers who arrived at the Staleys' house around 1:45 a.m. heard gunshots and saw someone running west, away from the house. They searched, with the help of a dog, for more than an hour, but they found no one.
During it all, Staley said, he lost sight of the black man.
"I never saw the man with the hood again that night," Staley said.
Tuesday afternoon, he did.
Staley said his wife told him she saw a body in the creek around 1:30 p.m. He said he didn't believe her atfirst, but after walking to the creek's slippery, rocky banks, he saw the man. He said he recognized the black-hooded clothing as what he had seen early Tuesday but he saw no blood or gunshot wound.
Regardless of the cause of the man's death, Staley said that although he was trying to protect his family and defend his property, he regrets what happened.
"I feel so bad that a man died out here," Staley said.
Baker said investigators have located another man who they believe was involved in the attempted burglary. He did not identify the man, and no charges had been filed against anyone as of Wednesday afternoon.
"This is one of those cases that's up in the air," Baker said. "We're trying to put the pieces together."
Detectives will turn their investigation over to the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney, who will determine if any charges will be filed, Baker said.
On Wednesday, Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley said he had not received any information from Sherwood police. He will review the reports once they are filed, he said.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 11 on 10/25/2007