As North Little Rock police checked on a man's well-being inside a home Monday night, a gunshot from inside prompted authorities to call out a SWAT team and neighbors to speculate that a gunman might be loose in the area.
Police worked to dispel those social-media rumors even as they investigated what had happened inside the home.
On Tuesday, authorities released a full account of what happened: Officers were called about 7:20 p.m. to a residence on Meadow Oaks Cove south of the North Little Rock airport after a man made suicidal comments to family members.
Officers heard the gunshot from outside and then called in the SWAT team and crisis negotiators. SWAT officers later entered the residence and found the 40-year-old man dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said in a statement.
Sgt. Brian Dedrick noted the incident was entirely restricted to the house in question, though rumors spread on an Indian Hills Neighborhood Association page suggesting a gunman was being sought in the surrounding community. Some comments on the post, which was later removed, suggested information was being gleaned from a delayed, online broadcast of the North Little Rock police dispatch.
Dedrick said he joined the group Monday night to try to correct the misinformation. The chief of the North Little Rock department, Mike Davis, also posted.
"Officers were dispatched to a residence in the Indian Hills area," he wrote about 9 p.m. "The call was for a welfare check. We are currently on scene and working to resolve the issue. We have no information about anyone walking through the neighborhood shooting a gun."
Dozens of group members liked his post and several replied, including one woman who thanked him for "clearing it up" and said "we were a bit freaked out."
Davis replied about two hours later to his own message.
"Incident is over," he wrote then. "We will be at the location for some time. Sorry we can't elaborate anymore for now."