Police are investigating after masked intruders fatally a shot a man at his Little Rock home Sunday morning.
Officers were called at 4:45 a.m. to a house at 2115 Howard St., between Wright Avenue and West Roosevelt Road. They found Daniel Dewayne Lewis, 50, had been shot multiple times. Lewis, who was known as "Danny," was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police reported that his older brother, Kenneth Allen Lewis, 59, was also found shot at the home. The elder Lewis was taken to UAMS Medical Center in critical but stable condition.
Police spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan said investigators believe the brothers were shot in a robbery. Two armed intruders confronted Kenneth Lewis inside the home and demanded "items," police said.
McClanahan declined to elaborate on what the intruders were seeking.
"When we interview the suspects -- if and when we do -- that could be something that we use to leverage them, when we talk to or interrogate them," he said.
Police said the intruders shot Kenneth Lewis once after they demanded the items. The gunfire led Danny Lewis to open his bedroom door to investigate.
The intruders then shot and killed Danny Lewis.
A grandson of one of the brothers, age 12, was also injured in the robbery, according to a police report. One of the intruders struck him in the head with a pistol. The boy was not identified in the report because of his age.
McClanahan said the boy was taken to Arkansas Children's Hospital with minor injuries.
The intruders, who are both described as black, wore bandanas over their faces and black clothes. McClanahan said it was dark inside the house when the killing occurred, and more detailed descriptions were not immediately available. He said detectives were interviewing witnesses.
"So far we have had some cooperation with witnesses, which is always essential in these cases," McClanahan said.
McClanahan said it was "too soon to say" whether the intruders and the Lewis brothers knew each other. He said an investigation is ongoing.
[2017 HOMICIDES: Interactive map shows location, details of all Little Rock killings so far this year]
A man who identified himself as a family member of the Lewis brothers declined to speak to a reporter outside the residence Sunday.
Danny Lewis' death is the 39th homicide of the year in Little Rock. There were 42 homicides in all of last year.
Little Rock police and FBI data show the city has recorded an average of 39.7 homicides per year since 1985. The total number includes some manslaughter cases, which authorities added to the homicide tally in earlier years.
The highest number of homicides recorded in that period in one year in Little Rock was 68 in 1993, during the height of gang violence in the city.
The lowest number in that period was 24 in 2010.
No arrests had been made as of Sunday in the city's latest homicide.
Information for this article was contributed by Hunter Field of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 08/07/2017