A man arrested in a fatal shooting on New Year's Day at a barbershop in Jonesboro has a history of violence, according to court documents.
The Jonesboro Police Department said Markus Gentry of Blytheville was arrested without incident about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday after a warrant was issued. Gentry was in the Craighead County jail Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by certain persons.
Sgt. Lyle Waterworth, a Police Department spokesman, said officers were called about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday to a shooting at a barbershop at 1120 W. Huntington Ave. where they found Lewis C. Gamble, 35, of Jonesboro, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Gamble was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
Officers arrested Gentry that evening at a residence in south Jonesboro, according to reports.
"Gentry will be taken before a judge for probable cause and bond hearing on charges of murder in the first degree and possession of a firearm by certain persons," Waterworth said. Officers are "still working on the cause, interviewing and sorting, so that may be a while," he said.
In 2016, Gentry was arrested after a brief standoff with police at his home in southwest Blytheville and was charged with aggravated assault and parole violation after police said he fired shots at another man.
According to a police report, neighbors in the 2100 block of West McHaney Drive in Blytheville called authorities about shots fired in the area. When officers arrived, they encountered Treyvon Peel, who told them that Gentry had fired several shots at him and chased him across an open lot, according to the report.
The police report said Peel told officers that Gentry had admitted to fatally shooting Peel's brother, 26-year-old Michael Treman Harris. Peel told police that he went to Gentry's home to confront him the next evening and shots were fired, the report said.
Court records on the Blytheville incident could not be located Wednesday. Scott Ellington, prosecuting attorney for the state's 2nd Judicial District, said Gentry was a suspect in the slaying but was never listed as a defendant.
Gentry also was arrested on May 8, 2009, after police pulled him over in a bullet-ridden vehicle and found him with a gun, according to a police report. Gentry was cited with carrying a weapon, reckless driving, disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental operations.
The day after that incident, off-duty officer Josh Talbott called dispatchers to report an accident at University Loop and Johnson Avenue in Jonesboro. Talbott said that when he went to check on the people involved in the accident, a man in a passing vehicle fired shots at him, according to a police report.
That same day, officers were dispatched to the 300 block of North Allis Street in reference to a man being shot in the calf and back.
Police said the driver of the vehicle that crashed contacted them three days later and identified Gentry as the person who shot at them and Talbott, a police report said. The driver told police that the incident started at a club in Jonesboro and escalated when Gentry and another person began shooting at their vehicle while they were driving, the police report said.
Gentry was taken into custody and charged with a felony count of terroristic act.
A day after Gentry was arrested in the shooting involving Talbott, the victim in the shooting on North Allis Street identified Gentry as the man who shot him, according to a police report.
A man who was reportedly with Gentry at the time of both shootings said the North Allis Street shooting occurred while Gentry was robbing a man of drugs and money, and that Gentry fired shots at Talbott because he thought Talbott was a "Mexican," according to a police report. The man said Gentry didn't know Talbott was an off-duty officer.
Gentry was charged with terroristic act and first-degree battery in the North Allis Street shooting.
He received eight years of an imposed sentence in 2010 along with 10 years of suspended imposition of sentence in the 2009 charges.
State Desk on 01/03/2019