A Pine Bluff man who surrendered to police Thursday in the shooting death of Tyrice Graydon was ordered held without bail Friday on a charge of capital murder.
A news release from the Police Department said officers were dispatched to 202 Rhinehart Road near Pullen Street around 2:45 p.m. When they arrived, officers found Graydon, 32, of Pine Bluff lying on the ground. Graydon was taken to Jefferson Regional Medical Center where he died, the release said.
Sharrodrick Dunn, 36, was arrested and jailed after he gave himself up to the Jefferson County sheriff's office a few hours later.
In a probable-cause hearing Friday morning, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jill Reed told District Judge Kim Bridgforth that when police arrived on the scene, they found Graydon on the ground suffering from a single gunshot wound in his chest. Reed said police found one .45-caliber shell casing.
She said a witness told police that a man in a white Ford Expedition was seen shooting Graydon and then driving away.
Another witness, who told police he knew both men, identified Dunn as the assailant, Reed said, reading from the affidavit. She said the witness told police that Dunn and Graydon had a conflict that had resulted in Dunn quitting his job at the Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation Department.
"Mr. Dunn was taken to Jefferson Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 1551 hours (3:51 p.m.)," Reed said.
Police obtained a video from a nearby surveillance camera that recorded the incident, Reed said, and according to the affidavit, the video showed Graydon pulling up to the barbershop at Rhinehart and Pullen, then getting out and walking toward Dunn, who was sitting in his vehicle, the white Ford Expedition. On the video, Dunn was seen exiting the Expedition while it was in gear, firing at Graydon, then running to catch his vehicle and driving away to the north on Rhinehart Road.
The affidavit said no weapon was found on Graydon or in his vehicle.
The affidavit said that when police first began questioning Dunn, he denied any knowledge of the shooting, but after he was shown the video, he told police he was defending himself. According to the affidavit, Dunn said Graydon had been bullying him to the point that earlier that day, Dunn had quit his job.
He told police, the affidavit said, that he was driving around for awhile in the Dollarway area when he decided to get a haircut at the barbershop on Rhinehart Road, at which time he said Graydon pulled up in an "aggressive manner," then got out of his vehicle and approached Dunn.
"He said he did not know what Mr. Graydon had, so he shot him with his Smith & Wesson .45," Reed said. "He said he threw the gun in the Lake of Pine Bluff off of King Street and went to his brother's home."
Reed told Bridgforth that the state was requesting Dunn be held without bail and face a capital-murder case.
"Mr. Dunn does have a fairly extensive criminal history which includes a federal offense for which, I'm not sure what that federal sentence was," Reed said. "He does have burglary in 2003, he does have a theft by receiving in [2011], and in 2006, it was the case that went concurrent with his federal sentence he had aggravated robbery that was reduced to a C felony. I don't know what that C felony was, and possession of a firearm that was nol prossed."
Bridgforth ordered Dunn to be held without bail on a charge of capital murder and, after determining that he had no assets, she told him he would be assigned a defense attorney from the public defender's office.
Samuel Glover, the director of the parks department, confirmed that Dunn had worked for the department, saying he had been there for about two years, and that he had quit abruptly about lunchtime on Thursday.
He said Graydon had just been hired at the department the previous Thursday.
"He quit the job after lunch," Glover said. "He just said he didn't want to work the job anymore. He never gave a reason why but as far as him and Mr. Graydon not getting along, they were getting along just fine."
He said his understanding was that the two men had known each other before Graydon was hired at the department and said they seemed to be, if not friends, at least friendly.
"There was no problem Thursday, no problem Friday, then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning," Glover said. "They had a disagreement about, I don't know, whatever, but even that wasn't like some kind of volatile blow-up. It just seemed to be an argument between friends."
Glover described Dunn as a hard worker, dependable and easy-going, and said he was being groomed to move into a supervisory position.
"For all intents and purposes, he was pretty jovial, a mild-mannered guy," he said. "He had a nickname, 'Jolly.' Everybody has a nickname and his was 'Big Jolly.' He was easy-going, a hard worker, just a real good guy."
But then, he said, Dunn walked off the job at noon. Then came the news that Graydon had been shot.
"I spoke with Mr. Dunn at lunch, and he was talking just like I'm talking to you," he said.
"The maintenance supervisor talked with him, and he just told him he quit. He asked him why and he just said he couldn't do it, he couldn't do the work anymore.
"I don't know why," Glover continued. "One can only speculate but I don't like to get into that."
He said he asked Graydon if there was a problem and said Graydon told them it was nothing serious.
"He said, 'oh, yeah, everything's good, this is my friend, we go back,'" Glover said. "That's why this is such a shock."
If convicted of capital murder, Dunn could be sentenced to life in prison or he could face the death penalty.