Carjacker shot in getaway try near west Little Rock restaurant, officers say

Pursuit of shoplifter escalates in parking lot; no one else hurt

Emergency personnel load a man into an ambulance at the scene of a shooting by a police officer on West Markham Street in west Little Rock on Wednesday afternoon.
Emergency personnel load a man into an ambulance at the scene of a shooting by a police officer on West Markham Street in west Little Rock on Wednesday afternoon.

Police shot a suspect in a shoplifting Wednesday after he took a woman's car outside a Chick-fil-A restaurant in west Little Rock, according to the city's police chief.

The incident began when Little Rock police were called to a Home Depot, 12610 Chenal Parkway, about 12:50 p.m. for a report of shoplifting, Police Chief Kenton Buckner said at the scene of the shooting.

A short time later, Buckner said, police were told that the shoplifter had become unruly.

Officers arrived, he said, and shortly after there was a foot chase with the man.

Police fired at the person after he carjacked a vehicle outside the Chick-fil-A restaurant at 12500 W. Markham St., Buckner said. The restaurant is on the edge of the Home Depot parking lot.

The individual, whom police did not identify but whom Buckner described as a man in his early 20s, was wounded and taken to a hospital. The man did not have life-threatening injuries, Buckner said.

Buckner said Wednesday afternoon that he did not know why police fired.

"Obviously, that will be a part of our investigation," Buckner said.

The carjacking victim did not appear to have any injuries, he said, but she was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Buckner said he believed only one officer fired shots, but that had not been confirmed as of Wednesday afternoon. The chief said it was also unclear Wednesday afternoon how many shots were fired by police.

At the scene in west Little Rock, two vehicles that had collided head-on sat outside the drive-thru lane of the Chick-fil-A restaurant. The front end of one of the vehicles, the four-door car that had been carjacked, was crumpled, and there were at least two bullet holes in the front side window.

The other vehicle was a Jeep, the one Tim Lincoln was driving when the shooting occurred.

Lincoln said in an interview that officers were ordering a person to get out of a vehicle when shots were fired. The car took off and jumped a curb, driving out of the drive-thru lane and down a slight hill into a grassy area, he said. Lincoln said he turned his vehicle head-on into the fleeing car to stop it from getting away.

"It all happened pretty fast," said Lincoln, who was on his way to the Home Depot when he spotted the situation.

Even after the crash, Lincoln said, officers had a hard time getting the person out of the car.

"There was a lot of screaming going on," he said.

A witness at the scene, who asked that his name not be used, said he saw an officer stop his patrol unit on West Markham Street before getting out and approaching a vehicle in the drive-thru of the Chick-fil-A.

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The officer held up his hand and commanded the person in the vehicle to stop, the witnesses said. He said the car moved toward the officer and three shots then rang out.

The car in the drive-thru then crashed into the Jeep, the witness said.

Wednesday's incident is the fourth shooting involving a sworn member of the Little Rock Police Department this year. The first three officer-involved shootings of the year were fatal.

In the first of those shootings, Little Rock detective Angela Everett was working off-duty Feb. 24 when she shot and killed 44-year-old Gregory Lamont Childress in the parking lot outside the state revenue office at 9108 N. Rodney Parham Road.

Police said Childress attempted to rob Everett and fired his weapon at her before she returned fire, fatally hitting him.

About a month later, on March 26, Michael Hornibrook was fatally shot by Little Rock police in an alleyway behind the downtown bar Ernie Biggs, police said. According to police, Hornibrook reportedly raised a firearm toward officers.

The third shooting involving Little Rock police this year happened on April 5 when Austin Snyder, 22, was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Extended Stay America hotel at 10800 Kanis Road, according to the department. When officers approached a vehicle Snyder was driving, he sped forward and rammed it into another vehicle, pushing it into a police vehicle, according to the department.

According to police, Snyder ignored commands to show his hands and instead dropped his hand from the steering wheel to his side. Officer Jonathan Gonzalez fired his weapon, killing Snyder, the department said.

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Emergency medical technicians talk with police at the scene in west Little Rock where police shot a carjacking suspect Wednesday and two cars crashed. Bullet holes are visible in the car at the left, in the passenger-side window.

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A map showing the location of a carjacking and officer involved shooting.

Metro on 07/20/2017

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