The 30-year-old man killed by a Little Rock police officer on Friday was a felon awaiting trial on methamphetamine-trafficking charges who once refused to cooperate with prosecutors in a case about an armed ambush on police, court records show.
Bradley Jamal Blackshire died some time after 11 a.m. Friday after Blackshire, driving a stolen car, tried to run over Charles Starks, police said. Starks was struck by the car and briefly hospitalized with injuries.
Starks had recognized the black 2018 Nissan Altima that Blackshire was driving as being stolen and stopped the car near the McDonald's at 12th and Rodney Parham streets, police said. The vehicle is owned by a Hertz Rental Car franchise, Carco Carriage Corp. of Fort Smith, according to a police report.
A second police officer, Michael Simpson, was not injured. Neither was the woman in the car with Blackshire, 20-year-old Desaray Michelle Clarke of Little Rock. The shooting is under investigation.
Court records show Clarke, formerly of Jacksonville, had been released from the Pulaski County jail about two weeks ago after serving time for separate misdemeanor prostitution and theft convictions.
Court records show that Blackshire was awaiting trial on drug and gun charges that could have sent him back to the penitentiary for life.
The charges against Blackshire stem from his Sept. 26 arrest at the M Star Hotel at 1010 Breckenridge Drive in west Little Rock where he and a woman were found with a pistol, ammunition and 3.8 grams of methamphetamine.
According to an arrest report, Blackshire and the woman were passengers in a black GMC Sierra sport utility vehicle parked by the hotel. Officers, suspicious because of previous drug arrests in the area, questioned the SUV's occupants, discovered that both Blackshire and the woman had outstanding warrants and arrested them.
Police did not charge the Sierra's driver, 33-year-old Arlah Bates of North Little Rock, who was released.
Blackshire spent about a week in jail before posting $10,000 bond on charges of felon in possession of a firearm, simultaneous possession of drugs and firearm and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.
The woman arrested with him, Tiffany Michelle Kumpe of Alexander, remains jailed, charged with felon in possession of a firearm.
Kumpe, 26, is also awaiting trial on a hindering apprehension charge over accusations that she helped murder suspect Andre Lamont Jackson, 33, avoid recapture when he was mistakenly released from custody last March.
Kumpe and Jackson were arrested together in May at the Motel 6 Little Rock Airport, 3200 Bankhead Drive.
Jackson is scheduled to stand trial in April on capital murder charges over accusations he killed Italian tourist Carlo Marigliano in July 2017 under the pretext of selling the man marijuana.
In August 2012, Blackshire witnessed a fatal shooting at the Eastview Terrace Apartments on Geyer Street in Little Rock, court records show.
Cameron Jamal Peterson shot both Billy Andre McKinney, now 37, and Desirea "Ray Ray" Rice after McKinney intervened to break up an argument between Peterson and Blackshire, court records show. Rice, 25, died of his wounds about a week later.
Peterson, now 26, told authorities he was acting in self-defense. He was charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and first-degree battery in May 2014, accepting a 10-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors said Peterson had been feuding with Blackshire because Blackshire had been called as a prosecution witness against Peterson in an attack on Little Rock police.
Peterson had been charged with two counts of attempted capital murder in the attack, but the charges were dropped in October 2012 -- two months after McKinney and Rice were shot -- because witnesses, one of them Blackshire, refused to cooperate.
Little Rock officers Spencer Smith and Bryan Black were ambushed by gunfire in front of the Eastview Terrace apartments in August 2011. They were at the apartment gate, waiting for it to open, when gunmen started shooting at them, according to police reports.
The officers were not injured and took cover behind their patrol car. More police arrived and cordoned off the area, but the gunmen could not be found. Police said an assault rifle and pistols were used.
Peterson's co-defendant, Jeremy Mario Ford, surrendered about 12 hours later. Peterson was captured about three weeks later.
Ford, now 32, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May 2014 for unrelated crimes, including tampering with evidence, firearm possession and drug possession.
In December 2016, Blackshire accepted an 18-month prison sentence for twice violating probation over about a four-year period by failing to attend counseling programs, skipping meetings with his probation officer and not paying his fines and court costs.
He'd been on probation since January 2013 after pleading guilty to attempted commercial burglary and felon in possession of a firearm from two separate arrests.
That plea stemmed from a May 2012 arrest when Blackshire and another man, Terrance Lamar Denzmore, were caught by police breaking into Arkansas Mill Supply Co. at 920 Shall St. Denzmore, 27, of North Little Rock, also received probation.
Three months later, Blackshire was arrested carrying a gun in a late-night encounter with North Little Rock police investigating complaints about drug dealing near the intersection of 16th and Marion streets, a "high-crime area," according to an arrest report.
In March 2016, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic battering in exchange for probation.
Metro on 02/26/2019