Benton gunshot victim arrested in shooting

A Benton man who was the purported victim of an April shooting has been arrested after his release from a hospital, the Benton Police Department said Monday.

Timothy Gauldin, 29, was taken into custody Friday in an April 26 shooting on Millbrook Drive in Benton, police said. Evidence discovered during the investigation found that Gauldin shot himself with the help of Jason Gaunt, 35, a teacher in Little Rock, according to a Benton Police Department news release.

Gauldin is charged with possession of a firearm by a certain person and filing a false police report, both felonies. Gauldin is an active parolee, Benton police said.

In the April incident, officers found Gauldin lying in the front yard of 2511 Millbrook Drive in Benton with a gunshot wound in his chest and originally thought he had been shot while out for a walk.

Police are still investigating the motive of the shooting, but Benton police have said it may be “an intricate plot.”

When searching Gaunt’s home at 2303 Cherry Crossing in Benton, detectives found the firearm involved in the shooting and “a marijuana home grow operation and related paraphernalia,” Benton police earlier said.

Police arrested Gaunt and charged him with furnishing a firearm to a convicted felon, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

A contract for the 2011-12 school year between Gaunt and the Little Rock School District that is accessible online states that he worked at the Forest Heights Middle School.

It does not list his position, but shows he was paid $1,317.50 over 24 installments for his work that year, implying that he may have been part-time.

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