Motel guest’s death 3rd LR killing in ’12

Little Rock police detective Terrell Vaughn (right) escorts Henry Harmon, who was charged Friday in the city’s third slaying of the year and an unrelated robbery.
Little Rock police detective Terrell Vaughn (right) escorts Henry Harmon, who was charged Friday in the city’s third slaying of the year and an unrelated robbery.

— A 33-year-old Little Rock man became the city’s third homicide victim of the new year when he was fatally shot early Friday in what police described as a botched robbery attempt.

John Edward Williams suffered gunshot wounds in his chest, abdomen and left arm about 12:20 a.m. in a room at the Heritage House Inn at 7500 S. University Ave.in the southwest section of the city, according to a Little Rock police report.

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Williams was taken to UAMS Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:05 a.m., Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs said.

Less than 10 hours later, a Little Rock police officer spotted the suspect in the shooting, who also was sought in an unrelated strong arm robbery of a Shell station the previous day.

MAP

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Henry Alexander Harmon,41, of 4216 W. 12th St., was arrested after a brief chase in the 2100 block of South Pulaski Street. Harmon was charged with capital murder in Williams’ death.

In the shooting, officers found Williams unconscious on a bed in Room 169 of the motel near Interstate 30 and Forbing Road. Williams’ girlfriend, Christina Dyer, told officers a gunman knocked on the door and then kicked it open when Williams cracked the door to see who was there.

The suspect was wielding a black semiautomatic pistol and “screaming, ‘Where’s the money?’”

After shooting Williams, the gunman began rummaging through the room looking for money and Dyer ran out of the room. The robber then fled in what was described as 1970s model Lincoln Town Car.

Officers spotted the car near 20th and Maple streets and briefly pursued before losing sight of the vehicle, the report said. The vehicle was later recovered in the parking lot of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, along with a .38-caliber handgun that was found near the car, a police report states.

Police said Friday that the victims did not know Harmon, but a witness told detectives that she went to the motel with Harmon to smoke crack cocaine with Williams and Dyer. Harmon told the woman to stay in the car and returned a short time later after she heard several gunshots, a police report said.

Harmon threatened to kill the woman if she told anyone what happened, she told police, but she said she was persuaded by family members to talk to police.

Harmon also was charged in the robbery of the Food Mart Shell station at 4100 W. Markham St.

Police said a man entered the store about 6 a.m. Thursday and got a cup of coffee. As he went to pay, he pulled a red bandanna over the lower portion of his face and waited as the clerk rang up the purchase and opened the register.

The man then grabbed the register, trying to snatch cash out of the drawer. When the clerk resisted, the man struck the clerk in the face, grabbed some cash and fled the store, police said.

The robber was spotted leaving the area in a “four door Lincoln”, similar to the one seen leaving the scene of the homicide early Friday, according to police.

Harmon also faces charges of resisting arrest and fleeing, stemming from his arrest. He also was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia after he was searched and officers said they found a crack pipe.

Since 1992, Harmon has worked out guilty pleas in several other cases in Pulaski County courts, including charges of first- and second degree battery, aggravated robbery, theft by receiving and possession of a controlled substance, court records show.

The city’s first two fatal shootings of the year occurred less than two hours apart Tuesday night.

Daniel Hill, 22, of 9507 Jacques Road in Little Rock, was shot several times and pronounced dead at the scene after two men opened fire in an apartment on Green Mountain Road. Hill’s girlfriend, Edwina Martin, 25, was seriously injured in the shooting.

Darius Bee, 32, was fatally shot shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday outside the Sunshine Mart at 3525 Barrow Road.

No arrests have been made in either shooting.

The deadly week comes on the heels of December, a month in which there were five homicides, to take to 37 the number of slayings in Little Rock in 2011. In the first month of 2011, the city recorded six slayings, Hastings said. In January 2010, the city had two killings.

Of the eight slayings since Dec. 1, police have made arrests in five. While some warrants in the unsolved cases have been obtained, Hastings said he couldn’t say more because police were looking for the suspects.

“The homicide detectives are making some very good progress,” he said.

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 01/07/2012

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