Two Little Rock police officers have been cleared in a shooting that killed a 54-year-old man earlier this year, according to the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney's office.
Michael Hornibrook of Little Rock was killed after officers Brian Osmundson and Samuel Hill fired at him in a downtown alleyway on March 26, authorities said. In a statement released after the shooting, Little Rock police said the two officers shot at Hornibrook after he raised a pistol toward them.
The Pulaski County prosecuting attorney's office has ruled that the officers' use of deadly force was justified, chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson said on Monday.
Johnson declined to discuss the specifics of the case.
According to state law, a law enforcement officer is justified in using deadly force to defend himself or another person from what an officer "reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of deadly physical force." Arkansas law also states that police can use deadly force to prevent the escape of an arrested person that an officer "reasonably believes" is armed or dangerous and has committed a felony or has tried to commit a felony.
The lead-up to the March officer-involved shooting occurred when police on President Clinton Avenue were approached by 29-year-old Charles Phelps in the early morning hours of March 26, according to a police report released after the shooting.
Phelps told police he was near Ernie Biggs, a downtown bar, when a man later identified as Hornibrook came out of the bar and began saying "racial slurs," according to the report.
Phelps, who is black, told Hornibrook he did not want any trouble, according to the report. Phelps said Hornibrook started to walk away, but then turned around and pulled out a handgun, according to the report. He reported that Hornibrook pointed the pistol at him and said he was going to shoot, according to the report.
After reporting the incident to police, Phelps identified Hornibrook, who was in the middle of President Clinton Avenue, as the person who had pointed the gun at him, the department statement said.
Osmundson and Hill told investigators that they tried to stop Hornibrook, but he fled on foot to an alleyway behind Ernie Biggs, according to the statement.
The officers were chasing Hornibrook through the alleyway when police say he stopped and turned toward the officers with a pistol in hand, "raising it as if to fire at the officers," according to the department statement.
Both officers then fired their weapons at him, according to the report. Hornibrook had multiple gunshot wounds and later died from the shooting.
Including Hornibrook's shooting, Little Rock police have had four officer-involved shootings this year. Three of those shootings have been 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. Johnson said that case file is in the review process within the prosecuting attorney's office.
On April 5, Austin Snyder, 22, was fatally shot by Little Rock police in the parking lot of the Extended Stay America hotel at 10800 Kanis Road, according to the department.
In July, a Little Rock officer shot and wounded Rudy Avila outside a Chick-fil-A in west Little Rock, authorities said. The department said Avila carjacked a vehicle and ignored officers' instructions to get out of the car. Police said the officer fired his weapon after Avila drove the car toward the officer.
Information for this article was contributed by Scott Carroll of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Emma Pettit of Arkansas Online.
Metro on 09/12/2017