2nd NLR murder suspect is dead

He was slain as a robber 2 weeks after Salvation Army major died

Salvation Army Major Philip Wise of Maumelle who was killed in front of his children on Christmas 
Eve in North Little Rock.
Salvation Army Major Philip Wise of Maumelle who was killed in front of his children on Christmas Eve in North Little Rock.

— The second suspect in the Christmas Eve killing of a Salvation Army major was shot dead trying to rob a North Little Rock convenience store 15 days later, police said Monday.

North Little Rock Police Chief Danny Bradley said he was confident that if a security guard had not killed Brandon Leavy, 20, of North Little Rock on Jan. 7 during the attempted robbery of a Dodge’s Chicken store on East Broadway, he could have been successfully prosecuted on a capital murder charge in the death of Philip Wise, 40.

Police charged Laquan Javaris Fizpatrick, 19, with capital murder March 16, accusing him of killing Wise in front of his three young children. Fitzpatrick remains in the Pulaski County jail, held without bail.

“I was very careful after we arrested Mr. Fitzpatrick not to say that we were looking for a second suspect,” Bradley said Monday during an interview in his office. “I said we were seeking information and evidence about a second suspect. Some of the news media - on television, on the Internet - reported that we were out actively looking for someone, but that’s not what I said. I felt we had to identify this person because I didn’t want the public to be misled about what’s going on.”

Bradley said people asked him constantly about progress in finding a second suspect.

“It was all the time,” Bradley said. “People wanting to know, ‘Y’all getting the other guy? You about to get the other guy?’ So I felt we had to put a stop to that misconception.”

None of Leavy’s relatives could be reached for comment. His mother’s phone number was disconnected, and no one replied to a message left for his father.

Bradley would not say which of the suspects his investigators believe pulled the trigger that rainy afternoon behind the Salvation Army Corps & Community Center at 1505 W. 18th St.

Just as detectives said after Fitzpatrick’s arrest that they heard his name early in the investigation, Bradley said Leavy had “been on the radar for some time.”

Investigators had gotten more confident that Leavy was the second suspect since Fitzpatrick’s arrest, Bradley said. Naming him at the news conference called to announce Fitzpatrick’s arrest would have been too soon, Bradley said.

Asked whether Fitzpatrick provided information linking Leavy to the killing, Bradley said, “That’s not something I can get into.”

Fitzpatrick did link himself to Leavy in one way. On Fitzpatrick’s Facebook page, he posted a status update reading “R.I.P. Brandon” the day Leavy’s death was reported in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Bradley would not say anything specific about the evidence tying Leavy to Wise’s death.

“Witness statements and information developed in the course of our investigation,” he said. “I can’t get more into it than that. We’re not going to prosecute this case in the newspaper.”

Though Bradley said he felt sure investigators had found enough to charge Leavy with capital murder had he lived, he did not discuss that with prosecutors.

“They are familiar with this case, obviously, but I did not meet with them before I made this release,” he said.

Investigators believe Fitzpatrick and Leavy were the only two people involved in killing Wise, Bradley said. But he would not rule out the possibility that detectives could file charges against people suspected of helping the two cover up their involvement.

“There’s nothing imminent, but it remains a possibility,” Bradley said. “We have to investigate everything fully.”

Wise’s widow, Cindy, also a Salvation Army major, was heading back from vacation with a minivan full of children when she heard Leavy’s name for the first time on Monday.

“I found out a few minutes before they made it official,” she said, talking on her cell phone from somewhere along a highway in Kentucky.

Since Leavy’s name became public, she said, she’s gotten “phone calls and text messages galore.”

She said she was “still kind of numb” to the fact that Leavy is dead.

“I’m not going to get to see him face to face,” she said. “He’s not going to have a trial. There’s no closure, though he has already received his punishment.”

Wise said she empathizes with Leavy’s family.

“That’s a hard thing to lose someone close to you,” she said. “I know something about that.”

She said she pitied Fitzpatrick and Leavy.

“My heart breaks for them,” she said. “I would have wanted them to know who Jesus is, to know and hear about Jesus. One of them no longer has any opportunity for that.”

Having names to put to her loss, she said she remains conflicted.

“I’m not yet sure how I truly feel,” she said.

Just more than two weeks after Wise was killed, North Little Rock police officer Charles Barnes found Leavy’s body in the parking lot of the Dodge’s Chicken at 2910 E. Broadway just after 10:30 p.m.

Leavy and another man had walked into the store and pulled guns, demanding cash from the register. A licensed security guard employed by the store pulled a gun and fired. Leavy collapsed just outside the store’s front door.

The second robber ran. A week later, police arrested Rodney Tyrone Townsend Jr., 20, of North Little Rock and charged him with aggravated robbery and manslaughter. Townsend remains in the Pulaski County jail.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/30/2010

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