An intoxicated 62-year old Sherwood man was shot by a police officer Wednesday morning after he stepped out his door to meet police while armed with three guns, police officials said.
Crandle Hopson was shot once in the upper torso shortly after 7 a.m. by an unidentified Sherwood officer, according to spokesman Sgt. Michael Payne. After being handcuffed, Hopson was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Payne said Hopson was “responsive” after being shot. He reported Hopson was in “stable” condition Wednesday night and will face several aggravated assault charges upon his release from the hospital.
The shooting was prompted by a morning phone call from a neighbor on Tenkiller Drive, who complained of a “domestic disturbance involving alcohol” at Hopson’s 106 Tenkiller Drive home, Payne said.
When police reached the home, they found Hopson’s wife, 49-year-old Gayla Hopson, waiting in the yard. She told police that her husband “had threatened her with a gun” and that he was inside the house threatening “to harm himself,” police reports said.
From their spot in the yard, officers could see an armed Crandle Hopson in the home, but they couldn’t persuade him to “disarm” and “exit.”
Hopson stepped out, reports said, “with a handgun in each hand and one in his waistband” and then started to raise the weapons at the officers.
“At this point one of the officers fired at the man, striking him one time and causing him to be taken into custody,” the police report said.
According to Payne, Hopson was charged with one count of aggravated assault on a family member, a Class D felony punishable by up to six years in prison, as well as three counts of aggravated assault on a police officer.
Wednesday’s altercation was not the first time police came to the Hopsons’ door for a disturbance involving alcohol and firearms, according to police records.
Officers went to the home at 3:13 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2011, and separated the couple, both of whom were “intoxicated,” reports said.
According to Gayla Hopson, the two were drinking and started arguing over finances, when “the argument got heated” and her husband went and got a gun.
She told police that he “pulled her hair back and stuck the gun to her neck” and threatened to kill her and then himself.
Crandle Hopson told officers in August 2011 that the couple had been having “problems for years and he [was]overcome with stress about the finances” and that he never put a gun to his wife’s neck.
Officers recovered the handgun and arrested Hopson, charging him with aggravated assault of a family member.
Two days later, police escorted Hopson back to his home to grab some paperwork and noted that his wife “had no problem with [her husband] coming to the residence” because the altercation the other night was just the “result of alcohol and a misunderstanding.”
The officer who shot Hopson was put on paid administrative leave per department policy, Payne said. Police officials said department policy did not permit them to identify the officer the day of a shooting.
Payne was unable to recall the last time a Sherwood officer shot a suspect but said it was unlikely it had happened within the past eight years.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/23/2014