LITTLE ROCK — Five days have passed and police say the suspects responsible for the shooting death of a store clerk and mother of two remain at large.
North Little Rock police Capt. Mike Davis said that although detectives were getting “good information”about the identities and the whereabouts of three men involved in the Sept. 22 robbery in which Akiya Egeston was shot and killed, they still need help from the public.
Davis joined Egeston’s mother, Maria Currie, her husband, John Egeston Sr., and the Rev. Benny Johnson at a Stop The Violence event at the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on Thursday afternoon in an effort to raise awareness and reach out to the community for helpful tips that could lead to an arrest.
“[Egeston’s shooting] is the word on the street,” Davis said. “Lots of times ... [when there’s a murder], people think it’s two drug dealers, that there’s nothing wrong with it ... there’s not anyone out there that doesn’t think [Saturday night’s shooting] is senseless or tragic.”
According to Currie, Egeston had been working at the 3600 MacArthur Drive E-Z Mart Store for a month, despite concerns from her and John Egeston that it was a dangerous job that often put employees at risk of being robbed.
Egeston’s husband described her as “not a typical female,” one who did what she could for her kids.
Currie said her daughter took the job to better support her 9-year-old and 6-year-old sons.
“They were her pride and joy,” Currie said. “She did everything for them ... why she ended up [working] there, she knew it was a bad area, but she took a chance.”
Three men in masks, including at least one who was armed, walked into the store at 9:15 p.m. and tried to rob the business.
Police said that Egeston, 29, either didn’t or couldn’t open the register, but that the three men left without any cash.
Moments later, one of the men walked back in and shot the woman, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Anyone living within walking distance of [the store] knows something,” Johnson said. “It’s some low down people ... it’s a low down situation.”
Johnson, whose organization was founded back in 1991 to reduce black-on-black crime and increase awareness and cooperation with investigators in the community, said that people brag and talk, and that a shooting like this deserves justice.
The E-Z Mart company is offering a $10,000 award for information that leads to an arrest in the shooting.
North Little Rock police said the men might be connected to a robbery at a Jacksonville convenience store that occurred five hours later.
In that robbery, a man wearing similar clothes to one of the suspects in the North Little Rock robbery but with a different skin tone took cash and threatened to kill the clerk but fled on foot.
On Tuesday night, M.D. Islam, 26, was shot and killed during a robbery while he worked at the Big Red Food Mart in Pine Bluff.
When asked if there was a connection between Egeston’s shooting and the killing in Pine Bluff, Davis said he didn’t have any information to support or disprove such a connection.
Egeston’s death was the sixth homicide in North Little Rock this year. Two days later, the city recorded its seventh homicide when Sidney Rufus died after a stabbing.
Investigators arrested and charged Devante Cooney in his friend’s death that night.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 09/28/2012