LITTLE ROCK — Authorities worked to determine Wednesday whether a man shot to death in Plumerville after leading police on a predawn car chase through three counties committed suicide or was killed by an Arkansas State Police trooper.
State police said Raymond Boettcher, 50, of Little Rock, who was wanted in the early morning shooting of his former girlfriend at 8511 Dreher Lane in the capital city, shot at officers during the chase through Faulkner and Conway counties.
Laura Lynn Krencius, 32, was hospitalized in serious condition with a gunshot in her chest but was expected to live, Little Rock police spokesman Michelle Hill said.
Krencius’ roommate, April Vallejo, 26, told police that Boettcher shot Krencius and then fled the house.
The chase began when state police spotted the car Boettcher was driving on Interstate 30 about 2 a.m. in Little Rock.
The pursuit continued along Interstate 430 and then Interstate 40 into Faulkner and Conway counties, where it ended at the Plumerville exit after Boettcher’s car drove over spiked strips that deflated the tires, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said.
Two other times, police had unsuccessfully tried to stop the car with spiked strips, but Boettcher “continued to flee from state troopers and [was] firing at them as they passed through Faulkner County,” Sadler said in a news release. Little Rock police and other agencies joined in the chase.
At Plumerville, Sadler said, state Trooper Kenneth Cartwright fired at Boettcher as Boettcher was pulling his car off to the side of the highway.
The state Crime Laboratory will determine whether Boettcher died of a self-inflicted gunshot or from a police bullet, Sadler said.
“There has been some evidence that [suicide] may be the case,” Sadler said.
Sadler declined to say where the bullet struck Boettcher.
Cartwright is on leave pending a review of the chase and the shooting, Sadler said. Authorities will turn over an investigative file to the Conway County prosecuting attorney’s office for review.
Cartwright was alone in one state vehicle and two other troopers who pursued Boettcher were in another car, Sadler said.
“The state police is reviewing videos that have been made available from the patrol cars from the course of the pursuit and the stop,” Sadler said.
A police report indicates that Boettcher worked at a Holiday Inn Express on Bankhead Drive in Little Rock. An employee answering the phone there said Boettcher worked in maintenance. The hotel’s manager declined to comment.
Sadler said he could not legally release any information on any criminal past Boettcher may have had. Dina Tyler, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction, said the agency has no records on Boettcher.
A search of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s criminal history records indicates that Boettcher, whose middle name was Scott, had an April 27, 1995, arrest in Leon County, Texas, for driving while intoxicated. The records show that he was convicted of the misdemeanor in November 1997.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/24/2010