Police on Tuesday continued to investigate two Monday night homicides, the latest deaths in a surge of violent crime in Little Rock.
In separate shootings, a 30-year-old man was fatally shot in a car and a 14-year-old boy was found dead inside a west Little Rock apartment, according to the Police Department.
In the first shooting of the night, officers were dispatched about 9:45 p.m. to the area of Mabelvale Cutoff Road and Stardust Trail, according to a statement from the Police Department. Outside the house at 10424 Stardust Trail police found a man on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds, the statement said.
Emergency medical personnel took the man to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, authorities said.
Click here for larger versions
Photos by Ryan Tarinelli
Photos by Ryan Tarinelli
Police identified the man as Loren Robinson, 30. According to a police report, he lived at the Stardust Trail residence.
Jamiha Charles, 22, told police that Robinson was in her car outside the house when a man walked up and fired several shots into the vehicle, hitting Robinson, police said. She described the gunman as a black male wearing jeans and a white shirt, according to the police report.
City spokesman Lamor Williams said Robinson was a city employee from August 2016 to January 2017. He worked as a garbage collector.
Minutes after responding to the shooting on Stardust Trail, Little Rock police were called to a second shooting at an apartment at 1502 Green Mountain Drive, according to a police statement.
[HOMICIDE MAP: Interactive map of killings in Little Rock, North Little Rock this year]
When police arrived, they found a 14-year-old boy unresponsive and lying on the floor in the apartment, police said. The teenager had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the statement. Police have not released his name.
A suspect who was seen leaving the scene right after the shooting is described as a black male between 15 and 20 years old. Police said Tuesday that they did not have a motive for the slaying.
Speaking at the scene Monday night, police spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan said there was no forced entry into the apartment, and that it was the victim's home.
"He is 14 years of age, which is way too young to be a victim of homicide and something that we should all be concerned about in this city," McClanahan said.
Small groups of people lingered outside the yellow crime-scene tape Monday, observing authorities from a parking lot at the apartment complex.
The teenager's father, Chris Alexander, 30, told police that one of his sons had called him to the scene, according to the report. Alexander told authorities that the son who called said the 14-year-old victim was found unconscious, and he thought the boy had been beaten up, according to a police report.
Alexander arrived at the apartment and found that his son had been shot, the report said.
Alexander is the founder of the community organization Better Community and Family Values, according to Nyle Daniels, the organization's co-founder and program director.
"He's in the grieving process," Daniels said of Alexander on Tuesday.
Daniels said the organization works with at-risk youths and about 100 people participate. He said most of the youths in the program range in age from 13 to 21, adding that not all of the participants are considered at-risk.
The program organizes sports for the participants and provides them with classes on conflict resolution and presenting themselves in a positive light, Daniels said.
Many youths, he said, have conflicts that they are not equipped to deal with, so instead they act out.
"We teach them how to deal with different conflicts," he said.
Daniels said two participants of the organization have denounced their gang affiliations and have applied to be officers with the Little Rock Police Department.
The two killings Monday night come as Little Rock has seen an increase in violent crime this year compared with the same time period in 2016.
There have been 1,917 incidents of violent crime -- homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault -- this year in Little Rock as of July 17, a 21 percent increase compared with the same time period last year, according to preliminary department data.
There has been an uptick in homicides as well. As of Monday, the city has seen 34 homicides this year, compared with 18 during the same time period in 2016. The city had 42 homicides in all of 2016.
Of the Little Rock homicides this year, 18 are unsolved, according to police spokesman Steve Moore.
Metro on 07/26/2017