LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock police officer Arthur McDaniel shot and critically wounded two men before dawn Wednesday after chasing their silver Mercury Marquis through far west Little Rock until trapping them on a dead-end street.
When the driver backed the car toward McDaniel and slammed into his patrol car, the officer fired several times, police said.
Four people were in the car. Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said McDaniel’s shots hit the 55-year-old driver, Millis Eldon Farnam, and his 29-year-old son, Jason Allen Farnam, in the head. Both were in critical condition at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock late Wednesday afternoon. A woman, Crystal Stanford, 21, received a minor leg injury, Hastings said.
The fourth person in the car, Christopher Allen Marts, 27, was not injured, Hastings said.
“The officer was not particularly trying to shoot them in the head, that’s just where they were shot,” Hastings said Wednesday morning.
McDaniel was placed on paid administrative leave as the department determines whether the shooting conformed to policy.
The older Farnam was listed as a parole absconder on Feb. 26, and the shooting was the second of an absconder in two weeks by a police officer in central Arkansas. Three North Little Rock police officers shot and killed another parole absconder, Matthew David Inmon, 38, on May 24 after he hid from them in a stand of trees and made what police called an “aggressive move” after refusing repeated demands to drop a handgun.
It was also the second time in two days that Little Rock police fired at a suspect. An officer shot at a drug suspect who pulled a gun as he tried to run away just after 3 p.m. Tuesday, police said. The officer missed.
McDaniel, a four-year veteran of the department, saw the Marquis about 3:25 a.m. when he had another car stopped at a shopping center at 17200 Chenal Parkway. McDaniel heard a noise and turned his patrol car’s spotlight toward the Koto restaurant. He saw at least two people, who got into the Marquis and drove off once they saw him, Hastings said.
Deciding they were suspicious, McDaniel followed the Marquis, Hastings said.
“They were outside a business at 3:25 in the morning,” Hastings said.
“Obviously, they were not trying to patronize the business.”
McDaniel followed the Marquis to Chenal Valley Drive and then LaMarche Drive, Hastings said, cornering it where the road dead-ends a few dozen yards past a development called The Courts.
McDaniel angled his patrol car to trap the Marquis. His backup was at least three minutes away, Hastings said. The officer wanted to get his .40-caliber Glock pointed at the car to keep the driver from trying to run off, Hastings said.
McDaniel fired when the driver put the car in reverse, backed into the patrol car and continued on into nearby trees, Hastings said.
The officer called an ambulance and quickly took custody of Stanford, Hastings said. Marts ran into a subdivision nearby, where a retired Oklahoma police officer working as a security guard nabbed him, Hastings said.
Hours later, skid marks remained on LaMarche Drive, in the street and on the curb the Marquis jumped before crashing in the woods. Near one orange-and-white dead-end barrier, a sign attached to a tree warned “Caution - Firearms in use - Keep out.”
Millis Farnam has been in and out of state prison since 1988, most often on theft and forgery charges. He has also been convicted of aggravated assault, fleeing, identity fraud,manufacturing and delivering drugs and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He committed crimes most frequently in Pulaski County, but his prison record also includes charges from Jefferson and Washington counties.
His parole is scheduled to end Dec. 12, 2012.
More recently, U.S. Forest Service agents found him April 10 in the Ouachita National Forest. They intended to arrest Farnam as a parole absconder, criminal investigator Morgan Amos said, but he disappeared on foot as the agents processed the paperwork.
“We’re still trying to figure out exactly how he got away from us,” Amos said.
A two-day search through the forest turned up nothing. The Forest Service issued a warrant for Farnam out of Perry County on a third-degree escape charge.
Farnam is also listed as a suspect in a Pulaski County sheriff’s office report from March about a theft.
Arkansas Department of Correction records show that Jason Farnam seemingly followed his father’s example. In 2002, he was sentenced to 20 years on theft, forgery and commercial burglary charges, as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm and discharging a firearm from a vehicle. He was released on parole in March 2008. He is scheduled to remain on parole until June 2, 2022.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/03/2010