Correction: Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson dismissed a motion to involuntarily admit Gwendolyn Jackson, 70, into the State Hospital for a mental health evaluation in 2013. Due to a court docket error, this story identified the wrong judge in the case.
A 70-year-old woman with a reported history of mental illness tried to set a man's car on fire using a homemade flammable device Wednesday morning, police reported.
When police detained the woman, who had taken a bus from North Little Rock to Little Rock, she told officers she had another incendiary device in the basket of her walker, and a Little Rock Fire Department bomb squad was called to the scene.
Police responded shortly before 7 a.m. to the 5000 block of East Crestwood Drive, where Mark Reynolds had called police after Gwendolyn Jackson purportedly walked up to his GMC Yukon and placed a bag under the vehicle. The bag contained a mason jar with an unknown flammable liquid, according to a police report.
Officers detained Jackson down the street near Edgewood Road. After officers searched Jackson and found matches and a lighter, she told them she had another flammable device in the basket of her walker, according to the report. A Fire Department bomb squad responded shortly afterward and cordoned off the area for about 30 minutes while securing the devices, Fire Capt. John Hogue said.
No injuries were reported.
Reynolds, 50, told police that Jackson had been harassing him and had tried to set his home on fire multiple times in the past, the report says. He said that led him to hire a private security guard who Wednesday alerted him when Jackson was on his property.
Police reported that Reynolds and Jackson are acquaintances.
Reynolds and his wife, Susan, a member of the board of directors of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, declined to comment on the incident.
Hogue said the Fire Department is investigating at least three instances of attempted arson at the home this year but wouldn't provide further information.
"There's still an investigation. We're still working all those leads. There has been numerous calls out there, but we're still working on the suspects," he said.
According to police, Jackson took a Central Arkansas Transit Authority bus to Reynolds' home from Sarah Daisy Garden Courts Inc., a senior-citizen living facility at 2600 W. Pershing Blvd. in North Little Rock. It's about a 7-mile trip.
The facility's manager, Wilma Salazar, said that residents live independently and are free to come and go as they please.
In June 2013, Jackson's family filed a petition in Pulaski County Circuit Court to have her mental health evaluated after she was arrested on a third-degree domestic battery charge. The petition asked the court to involuntarily admit Jackson to the State Hospital because she was believed to be a clear and present danger to herself or others.
In addition to aggressive behavior and hallucinations, Jackson "talks about devils and demons that are messing with her" and "talks about family members having put voodoo on her," the petition states.
After a hearing on the matter, Judge Alice Gray dismissed the family's motion on the grounds that Jackson was not a clear and present danger to herself or others.
The petition was signed by Yolanda Woodcock, Jackson's daughter. Another daughter, Patricia Mackey, is listed as a witness.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Woodcock and Mackey declined to comment on their mother's arrest.
Jackson was charged with attempted arson and two counts of criminal use of a prohibited weapon. She was being held in the Pulaski County jail with bail set at $15,000. At 70 years old, she is the second-oldest person in the jail.
Sheriff's office spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said Jackson received a mental-health assessment after being locked up. She was placed on medical administrative segregation status, meaning she is likely being held with the least serious offenders and without a bunkmate, he said.
"We have psychiatrists and psychologists on contract, so there are mental-health assessments on the booking screening," Minden said. "You don't automatically go into segregation, but if they need to have medicine or something like that, they make that available at the facility."
Metro on 12/18/2014