Boy, man slain in separate Little Rock shootings reported minutes apart

Two people were killed in separate shootings late Monday night in Little Rock, just hours after two others were injured in a single shooting.

Little Rock police responded to a reported drive-by shooting at 10424 Stardust Trail, near the intersection of Chicot and Mabelvale Cutoff roads, at 9:44 p.m. Once there, they found a 30-year-old male victim who had been shot multiple times in the upper body, said police spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan.

The victim, who was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead there, was not identified by police Monday night.

McClanahan said witnesses reported seeing a vehicle drive away from the scene, and police were talking to one of the occupants of that car.

A short time later, at 10:05 p.m., police were called to a shooting at the Pleasant Pointe Apartments, 1502 Green Mountain Drive. According to McClanahan, officers found a 14-year-old male who had been shot inside one of the apartments. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

McClanahan said police are looking for a suspect described as a 15- to 20-year-old black male, 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall.

The homicides were the city's 33rd and 34th of the year.

Earlier Monday, two people were wounded in a shooting at a Little Rock home, according to McClanahan.

[HOMICIDE MAP: Interactive map of killings in Little Rock, North Little Rock this year]

Both victims, a 20-year-old man and a woman whose age was not disclosed, were shot inside the residence at 4208 W. 19th St. Monday afternoon, according to McClanahan. Police were dispatched to the house at 2:56 p.m., he said.

The woman had been shot in the head and the man was hit in the hand, McClanahan said. Neither victim had life-threatening injuries, he said.

Police do not believe there is any threat to the public from the afternoon shooting, and McClanahan said investigators on Monday were trying to piece together how the two victims were involved.

"We are still trying to figure out exactly the dynamics of how the shooting took place," McClanahan said.

Terra Crumpton, who was in the house when the shooting occurred, said the shooting was a freak accident

Crumpton, who said she's a friend of the couple, said the girlfriend is pregnant and in her first trimester.

Crumpton was in another room Monday afternoon when she heard one loud shot and began to panic, thinking she might have been shot herself, she said.

"It scared me almost to death," she said.

She rushed out of the room to find the woman on the floor and the man screaming out of panic and worry, she said.

Crumpton said the two victims were a happy couple -- too happy for a domestic shooting to occur between them.

"I feel sorry for both of them ... that's their first baby," she said.

As of Monday afternoon, 137 people have been wounded by gunfire in Little Rock so far this year, according to police spokesman officer Steve Moore. He said it was not immediately clear whether the total included victims of accidental shootings.

Either way, Moore said the number of people hurt by gunfire has trended upward this year. Last year, 79 people were wounded by gunfire in Little Rock from January to July, and a total of 150 were wounded in the entire year, according to department data.

Little Rock has seen a surge of violent crime this year, a trend accented by a mass shooting at a downtown Little Rock nightclub early July 1. A total of 25 people were wounded in the shooting and three others were hurt trying to flee the club, authorities reported.

"It's very concerning," Moore said of the increase in shooting victims. "And it was concerning before we had [the nightclub shooting.]"

The shooting gained national attention and prompted Gov. Asa Hutchinson to announce the creation of a joint investigative force comprised of local, state and federal authorities. At the city level, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola last week announced dozens of new and existing methods to combat crime in the city.

Metro on 07/25/2017