LITTLE ROCK — Two victims remained hospitalized the day after three separate shootings left two dead and three wounded over a three-hour period Tuesday night.
Little Rock Police Department spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said detectives and officers were spread thin across the capital city as they responded to the shootings, which, he said, were unrelated.
Hastings said Randall Hamilton, 21, was in “very critical condition” Wednesday night at a Little Rock hospital, where he was being treated for multiple gunshot wounds that he received in a 10:11 p.m. parking lot shooting Tuesday outside Colonial Parc apartments at 5813 Base Line Road.
According to police reports, Hamilton and another man, Kelshun Mouton, 19, were wounded in the gunfire. A friend of Hamilton’s started to drive him to the hospital but ended up calling for help at a Shell gas station at 8000 Geyer Springs Road.
The gunfire stemmed from an argument, Hastings said. Hamilton and Mouton got into an altercation with an unidentified person, who pulled a gun and started shooting.
Detectives didn’t know late Wednesday what the argument was about, Hastings said.
Mouton took himself to St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, reports said, after he was shot once in the left arm. He was released later Tuesday night.
Edwina Martin, who was injured in an earlier shooting Tuesday night, was listed in good condition at a Little Rock hospital Wednesday afternoon, according to police.
Hastings said Martin, 25, was shot three times in the chest in her Pleasant Pointe Apartment about 7:10 p.m.
She was one of four people in the apartment at 1502 Green Mountain Drive when two unidentified people opened fire on her and her boyfriend, Daniel Hill.
Hill, 22, of 9507 Jacques Road in Little Rock, was shot several times and was pronounced dead at the scene. The gunmen “fired several rounds at [Hill’s] head,” according to police reports.
Also Wednesday, police released the name of the man who was shot and left for dead Tuesday night just a few feet from his car.
Darius Bee, 32, was found lying on a grass slope between the sidewalk and the parking lot of the Sunshine Mart liquor store at 3525 John Barrow Road about 8:45 p.m.
Detectives returned to the business Wednesday afternoon, where there was still crime scene tape and rubber gloves that Little Rock firefighters had used as they treated Bee on the side of the street.
Bee was taken to Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock, where he was later pronounced dead.
According to Hastings, Bee was shot at least once in front of a crowd that had gathered in the store’s parking lot, however, no one admitted seeing or hearing anything, he said.
Police didn’t have any suspect information about Bee’s killer, and Hastings said detectives indicated that marijuana may have been involved.
“You have a case of people who have drugs and people who want drugs ... the desire for drugs, the profits of these drugs is what drives [shootings like] this,” he said.
In early 2001, Bee was arrested and charged with multiple drug and weapons offenses, according to court records. He eventually was given probation, according to a 2002 court agreement.
In 2007 and again in 2010, he was arrested and charged with possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia.
Hastings said there have been several drug-related shootings over the past few months, including the Dec. 30 death of Greg Smith after a group of men tried to rob Smith of marijuana.
He said detectives were still trying to determine if there was any concrete connection between Bee’s death and previous shootings, including that of Smith.
The other two shootings Tuesday night did not appear to be drug-related, Hastings said.
According to police, the two gunmen who shot Martin and Hill didn’t force their way into Martin’s apartment, where she lived with her mother and two siblings.
The gunmen followed Martin’s mother and 10-year-old brother into the apartment, reports said, where they got into an argument with Hill and opened fire.
“It’s some kind of domestic deal,” Hastings said. “[Detectives] are thinking it’s relationship-related somehow. ... They’re just not sure what relationship exactly.”
Tuesday night’s shootings were the first two homicides of the new year in Little Rock.
The city hadn’t seen two homicides in one day since Feb. 3, when Robert McDonald, 55, and Sterling Bolden, 41, were both shot in the head inside McDonald’s home at 2512 Summit St.
In 2011, Little Rock had 37 homicides, including six in December. The city recorded 28 homicides in 2010.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 01/05/2012