LITTLE ROCK — A teenage girl is dead and two others are injured after a shooting in Little Rock on Wednesday night.
Jasmine Young, 17, died from her gunshot wounds at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She was taken there by private transport after the 9:53 p.m. shooting.
Young was a back-seat passenger in a white Chevrolet Tahoe parked near the Site Store at 4203 Asher Ave. when an unknown gunman opened fire on the vehicle, according to Little Rock Police Department spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis.
Young’s death marks the third homicide in Little Rock this year.
A 16-year-old, Sydney Blocker of North Little Rock, was sitting in the back with Young and was also injured by the gunfire, according to reports.
A Little Rock man, Kyron Richardson, 19, was seated in the front of the vehicle and suffered nonlife-threatening injuries.
A fourth man, James Wallace Burks IV, 20, was not injured in the shooting.
Davis said that any other details on the shooting, including motive or suspect information, remained under investigation and would not be released.
The clerk working at the store at the time, Bharath Sodagudi, told police that the victims were hit during a shootout between a customer who had just bought some tobacco and occupants of another car.
Sodagudi said he heard 17 or 18 shots before people fled from the business’s parking lot.
All of the victims had been taken from the scene by the time police arrived, according to reports.
On Saturday, a Little Rock man was shot at the same address around the same time of night.
According to police reports, Jimmy Griffis, 22, was shot at 4203 Asher Ave. by an unidentified teen who was trying to rob him.
Davis did not say whether or not the shootings were connected.
Homicide investigators worked into the night trying to figure out the details of the Wednesday shooting and were led to a suspect in Maumelle, according to arrest reports.
Maumelle Police Department reports said that their agency was contacted by Little Rock homicide detectives. The detectives had tracked a vehicle involved in the shooting to a home on Blue Mountain Drive in Maumelle.
Unable to find anyone at the address, Maumelle officers familiar with the residents there took Little Rock detectives to 112 Orchid Drive, reports state.
There, police found Burks and his father, James Burks III, inside the house with marijuana and drug paraphernalia in plain sight, police said.
According to Maumelle reports, Richardson also had a room in the house, and officers found “50 .380 rounds and a handgun magazine” as well as one spent .380 shell casing.
Police handed Burks over to Little Rock detectives and arrested his father.
The elder Burks, 38, was charged with theft by receiving which involved a stolen gun, possession of firearms by a felon, possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He remained at the Pulaski County jail Thursday night, where he was being held in lieu of a $30,000 bond.
Davis said she could not comment on how his arrest might tie in to the homicide.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 02/01/2013