LITTLE ROCK — A man was shot to death and his roommate was injured after a home invasion in southwest Little Rock ended with a shooting late Tuesday night.
Little Rock police said two unidentified assailants knocked on the door of the home of Rafael Osorio-Tum and Carlos Carrillo at around 9:31 p.m., pulled a gun and shot Osorio-Tum in the chest and pistol-whipped Carrillo on his head.
Osorio-Tum, 22, was taken to UAMS Medical-Center in Little Rock where he was pronounced dead from his injuries at 11:23 p.m., according to Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs.
Carrillo, 28, and Osario-Tum were hosting friends earlier in the night, according to Mark Green, the manager of the apartment complex at 8501 Dreher Lane.
Green said they were drinking and eating in the front of apartment J and he asked them to move to the back patio. They complied, he said.
Only minutes after Green left, Carrillo and Osario-Tum heard a knock on the door from two black men who asked if they could use a telephone.
When they opened the door, the men presented a gun and ordered the two residents and their three guests to get on the floor.
After taking their cash, one gunman struck Carrillo and another fired at Osario-Tum, reports said.
According to other tenants who came to the apartment after they heard gunshots, the manager said the robbers made off with $75 in cash.
Police would not comment on an ongoing investigation.
The two men, who worked in Maumelle, signed their lease at the complex on Sept. 1, Green said, not long enough to make any enemies in the neighborhood.
“It was just random. They don’t know nobody [in the neighborhood],” Green said. “[The victims] had no enemies... [the victims] were just good people. They all worked.”
After the gunfire, the two men took off, police reports said, and hopped in a blue four-door model car and drove off in an unknown direction.
Several apartment residents wondered whether the complex’s surveillance cameras caught footage of the suspects or even the shooting.
Green said they might have if they had been functioning.
Nickolaus Ward, who lives only a few doors down from Osario-Tum, was home that night playing with his baby daughter and son when he heard a commotion out the front door.
When he stepped out, he was met by police, detectives and paramedics. He didn’t know what had happened until he saw Osario-Tum laying on the ground just outside his doorway.
According to Ward, 24, he didn’t hear the car speed off, let alone hear a gunshot.
Living there since January, Ward said he hadn’t seen sirens outside his place where his children also live.
“Them bullets don’t have eyes,” Ward said.
Osario-Tum’s death marks the first Little Rock homicide this month and the 38th so far this year, one more than the total homicides in Little Rock all of last year.
At this point last year, there were only 23 homicides in the capital city.
Police described one of the suspects as a 5-foot-8-inch black man weighing 160 pounds.
The other suspect was also a black man who was 6 feet tall and about 150 pounds.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 09/20/2012