Hot dog vendor not charged in ex-officer's death

Hot dog seller Ean Bordeaux's cart is seen on Bragg Street in Little Rock on Friday, April 18, 2014.
Hot dog seller Ean Bordeaux's cart is seen on Bragg Street in Little Rock on Friday, April 18, 2014.

A hot dog vendor will not be charged in the April death of a former Little Rock police officer, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson said criminal charges will not be filed against Ean Bordeaux of Little Rock in the death of former officer Todd Payne, 50.

“We reviewed the facts and circumstances around that case and what caused his death, and based on all those things, there was nothing criminal that we could charge Mr. Bordeaux with,” Johnson said.

Payne died April 18 after he was tackled by Bordeaux, who told police that Payne had attempted to destroy his hot dog cart twice that morning outside his home at 1510 Bragg St., the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.

Bordeaux, whose age is unavailable, reported about 4 a.m. that someone was attempting to destroy his cart. The assailant left and later returned to try to damage the cart again, Little Rock police said, prompting Bordeaux to confront him.

“[Payne] fled on foot and was caught by Bordeaux within a short distance," police spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen said in a statement in April. "While Bordeaux was engaged with [Payne], [Payne] sustained injuries that later lead to his death at a local hospital."

Read Thursday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more on this story.

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