Police hunt 2 NLR killers

Slain pastor aided poor, charity says

Philip Wise
Philip Wise

— The Salvation Army major fatally shot in front of his children during an attempted robbery Christmas Eve had spent the past few years helping those in need in the North Little Rock neighborhood where he was killed, officials with the organization said Friday.

Philip Wise, 40, aided the poor and hungry in the Baring Cross neighborhood where he also pastored a church in the charity’s community center at 1505 W. 18th St.

He was killed there shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday.

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“This is a great loss not only to the Salvation Army but also to that community,” Major Harvey Johnson, commander of the Salvation Army in central Arkansas, said at a news conference Friday. “We hope that there are people in that community that would sense the importance of his contribution and would pass on any information to the police.”

Johnson said in an interview that Wise’s death had nothing to do with the charity’s kettle-campaign money.

“This is a rare thing. We go into a lot of unseemly places ... [but] it’s just something that doesn’t happen,” Johnson said.

In his more than 30-year career with the Salvation Army, Johnson said, he knew of only two other officers who were killed while performing their duties - one in Pakistan and the other in Virginia.

Wise had returned to the center Thursday afternoon after dropping off two bell ringers at their homes on the final day of the Salvation Army’s kettle drive. Two armed black men approached him and his three children - ages 4, 6 and 8 - in the parking lot on the north side of the building, police said.

The two men, wearing all-black clothing, demanded money, and then one of them shot Wise, police said.

They fled toward the nearby Windemere Hills housing projects, police said.

Wise’s wife, Cindy, also a major in the Salvation Army, called police from the community center, where she was the only person inside during the shooting, police said.

When officers arrived they found Wise, who had served in the Salvation Army for more than 15 years, lying in the back doorway of the community center.

No arrests had been made as of Friday evening, and police say they are turning to the community for help in apprehending the two men.

Wise remembered for his outreach in NLR neighborhood

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“Our entire community is saddened by this horrible crime, particularly because it’s a gentleman who has given so much to the community [and] to the neighborhood,” North Little Rock Police Chief Danny Bradley said.

It’s tragic for Wise “to lose his life, and his family to lose a father and a husband, at any time but particularly on Christmas Eve,” Bradley said.

Bradley said investigators interviewed several witnesses in the shooting and will be working on the case over the weekend. So far officers have few leads but they believe the robbers are still in the neighborhoods nearby.

Bradley declined to say if any money was stolen or the number of times Wise had been shot.

“At this time we aren’t releasing any other details of the crime. It is necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation,” Bradley said.

North Little Rock police have offered a $1,000 reward through Pulaski County Crime Stoppers for any information about the slaying. Anyone with information can call them at (501) 758-1234.

In the wake of the shooting, the Salvation Army in central Arkansas decided that next year its workers who carry in the donation kettles will have police escorts, said Kathy Barbeire, spokesman for the Salvation Army in central Arkansas.

“When bringing the kettles into the building, they will call the police and an officer will be there to supervise them unloading the money and bringing it into the building,” Barbeire said.

“We serve in places that aren’t often safe. We do our best to do the things that would protect ourselves,” Johnson said at the news conference. “But we go to the places to bring the light to dark places, to offer hope to those who might be hopeless. We will continue to do that.”

The Salvation Army is an international evangelical organization, whose mission is to “preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination,” according to its Web site.

The organization is configured much like a military organization, with commissioned officers of various ranks leading groups of “soldiers” and volunteers.

The center in North Little Rock where Wise worked provides youth programs, weekly church services and Sunday School, and a food pantry,among other services.

When workers who help the poor go into rough neighborhoods, many times the only thing they can do is hope their kindness will deter violence, said Fred Hokes, who has worked at the Watershed Human and Community Development Agency for 26 years.

“You just depend on the grace of God, that’s all you can do,” Hokes said. “You’re always vulnerable. There’s never a guarantee. You just do the best you can.”

Founded in 1978, the Watershed serves the needy in central Arkansas through job-placement, food-assistance and numerous other programs.

Hokes, the Watershed’s director of employment, said that for safety reasons, the agency’s workers and volunteers go out in groups, as they did Friday while delivering food to families in need at Christmastime.

Before coming to Arkansas, Wise and his wife of more than 20 years worked in the Salvation Army in Maryland and West Virginia, last serving in Charleston, W.Va., Johnson said.

Wise had relatives in West Virginia, and he was looking forward to visiting them after Christmas this year, Johnson said.

After moving to Arkansas, Wise headed the Salvation Army’s efforts in North Little Rock, Maumelle and Sherwood. He lived in Maumelle with his wife, two sons and a daughter.

At the Baring Cross center, Wise often used the arts as a way to minister to the people in the neighborhood, Johnson said. Wise played a variety of instruments, including the tuba.

“He was a big guy. A big old teddy-bear kind of guy,” Johnson said,

Johnson, who worked with Wise for about a year and a half, said Wise was a deliberate speaker, often pausing to contemplate his responses to questions.

“He kind of hesitated because he always wanted to say the right thing,” Johnson said.

Wise also enjoyed playing sports and talking about sports with the teenagers he worked with, some of them Cowboys fans who often ribbed him for his Pittsburgh Steelers partiality, Johnson said.

Friends and Salvation Army members stayed with Wise’s family during a “sleepless” Thursday night, Johnson said.

The charity is providing the family members with financial and other assistance as they mourn.

While the Salvation Army isn’t asking for donations for Wise’s family, it is setting up two funds in his honor where people can donate if they choose.

One fund will pay for children to attend a Salvation Army summer music camp. The other, named the Wise Family Memorial Fund, will benefit the family, Johnson said.

Johnson said the Salvation Army center where Wise preached and worked will hold Sunday services and open on Monday as usual.

“Life goes on, and that’s the way Phil would want it, that we would just keep on serving folks,” he said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/26/2009

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