A Little Rock property manager said the tenant he shot and killed late Monday evening was attacking him with a club, according to police documents.
A 911 caller told dispatchers about 8 p.m. Monday that there was a fight near 5805 Stagecoach Road and that his brother had been shot, police spokesman Eric Barnes said Tuesday in a media release.
When officers arrived, they found the body of Donald Blackburn, 59, who had died from an apparent gunshot wound, Barnes said. Another man, John Paul Parkman, 65, was bleeding from a "significant" head wound and was transported to Baptist Health Medical Center.
Barnes said detectives later learned that the fight between Blackburn and Parkman began as an argument but became physical when Blackburn used a club-style weapon to attack the older man.
Parkman shot Blackburn after being struck with the club, Barnes said.
After he was released from the hospital, Parkman was taken to the Police Department's major crimes division for an interview, a police report said.
Parkman was released without being charged, and the case was sent to the prosecuting attorney's office for review, Barnes said.
The Stagecoach Road residence sits at the head of a string of seven houses on a gravel road. The homes are one-story, paneled houses built around 1945, according to Pulaski County property records.
Barnes said Parkman is a property manager for the string of residences, and county records show that Parkman acquired the approximately 2 acres in 2004.
Parkman has been cited multiple times for failure to keep the properties up to regulations and housing codes, and failed at least six rental inspections, according to court records.
All three men, Parkman, Blackburn and Blackburn's brother, were listed on a police report as living in the cluster of houses, though the report did not specify who lived in which house.
Both men have had previous run-ins with police, court documents show.
Donald Blackburn had been arrested on public intoxication charges eight times since 2015, including as recently as New Year's Day, when Little Rock police officers arrested him on charges of resisting arrest, first-degree criminal mischief, public intoxication and disorderly conduct, according to court records.
Parkman negotiated a guilty plea on a rape charge in 1985 after breaking into a residence in Pulaski Heights and raping a woman in her late 20s, according to police reports. Parkman was sentenced to 24 years in prison for the rape and a concurrent 20 years for a burglary charge.
Parkman was also convicted of a rape and burglary charge in Texas in 1980 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which were served concurrently with the Arkansas terms.
Parkman was arrested again on two rape charges in 1993 after reportedly breaking into two homes and raping two women, but a Pulaski County judge dismissed both charges three years later, saying prosecutors had violated speedy trial provisions.
An Arkansas assistant attorney general who was later fired for missing deadlines to file death-row cases with the Arkansas Supreme Court, was given nine extensions to file an appeal in Parkman's rape case, but failed to do so, according to previous reports.
Parkman is the son of a retired Little Rock police lieutenant who died on June 6, 1984, about one year before Parkman's first Arkansas rape trial.
Metro on 01/09/2019