LITTLE ROCK — Saying he feared for his colleague’s life, a Little Rock detective shot a state parolee once in the leg and once in a back in last Friday’s fatal shooting, according to arrest affidavits.
Michael Daniel II, 26, and veteran vice detective Ken Blankenship, had just gone through a fence in their struggle over the detective’s weapon, according to police reports, when fellow detective Todd Hurd came up with his own gun drawn, ordering for Daniel to stop.
Daniel did not, police said, and Hurd, “in fear Daniel was going to gain control of [Blankenship’s] weapon,” fired twice, killing Daniel.
Daniel’s shooting marks the first homicide of 2013.
Hurd and Blankenship, both undercover officers, were near the 4500 block of W. 16th St. around 9:45 a.m. on “a tip” that someone had broken into a residence in the area and were “preparing to return to retrieve property,” a common method used by burglars, according to department officials.
Hurd and Blankenship spotted Daniel riding in the front passenger’s seat of a gray Toyota Camry driven by Marcus Davis earlier, the police report said, and later saw the two men carrying items out of a duplex at 4521 W. 16th St.
The detectives followed, but before a marked car could come to pull over the Camry, the detectives were spotted, and the suspects sped off.
Davis pulled the car over in an alley in the 1400 block of Brown Street and took off on foot, running west from the car while Daniel went east carrying items stolen from the house, reports said.
Blankenship followed Daniel. After he ordered Daniel to show his hands, the suspect dropped the load of items and “then crouched to the ground with his hands forward” as though to submit to arrest, reports said.
Daniel then leaped at Blankenship, wrapped his arms around the officer’s midsection and the two struggled.
According to police, Blankenship had his gun in hand, and spent much of the struggle trying to keep it from Daniel. Eventually, the two fell through a fence in a nearby yard.
Arrest affidavits said that by the time Hurd caught up with the two, that Daniel had gotten on top of Blankenship, and the two were still struggling for Blankenship’s weapon when Hurd fired twice.
Blankenship injured several ligaments in the struggle with Daniel and remained on paid administrative leave Monday.
Hurd joined the police department in 1992 and has become one of its foremost gang investigators, routinely serving as an expert witness in gang-related court cases.
He is also an instructor who has taught courses for other law enforcement agencies on how to identify gang symbols, tattoos and other activity.
Daniel’s driver, Davis, was charged with burglary, felony theft of property, fleeing and capital murder after his arrest Friday morning.
Under state law, a suspect can be charged with capital murder if someone is killed in the commission of a felony.
He remained at the Pulaski County jail Monday night in lieu of a $500,000 bond which was set during a Saturday court hearing.
Both Daniel and Davis were on parole the day of the shooting.
According to state prison officials, Davis entered prison in August 2011 to serve a 60-month sentence for the manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance, and was paroled in May 2012.
Since 2006, Daniel served four sentences in state prison for a variety of theft, burglary and breaking-and-entering crimes. Most recently, he was on parole after his release from prison in March 2012, where he had been sentenced to serve 36 months for theft of property.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/15/2013