A Little Rock man died early Thursday after being shot near West 11th and Lewis streets, a police spokesman said.
A 911 caller told dispatchers for the Little Rock Police Department at 12:01 a.m. Thursday that someone had been shot, department spokesman officer Eric Barnes said. The department's ShotSpotter, a gunshot-detection sensor, also detected gunshots in the area, Barnes said.
Officers arrived at the intersection to find 18-year-old Justin Bell lying in the street, having been shot multiple times, Barnes said. Emergency personnel took Bell to UAMS Medical Center, where he later died.
A police report listed two male suspects, but included no identifying information. Officers towed two mopeds that had been left in the street to the Little Rock crime-scene bay to search them for evidence, Barnes said.
Bell's address listed in the police report is in the 4200 block of West 17th Street, about six blocks from the shooting scene. No signs of a police investigation remained at the West 11th Street intersection Thursday evening.
Evett Young, who lives near West 11th and Lewis streets, said she woke up early Thursday to find her husband, Earl, calling 911.
"He said he heard gunshots, and he saw somebody running by our camera," Young said.
The Youngs have a digital doorbell, which also is a security camera, and Young said her husband saw two men running across the camera's view. Moments later, Young said she heard a woman screaming outside.
Young said she feared that the young man who was killed was one of the teens her husband had tried to mentor.
Though there had been a couple of incidents in the area since her family moved in two years ago, Young said they did not hear gunshots often.
Sebastian Pruitt, who also lives nearby, said he first heard what he believed were fireworks late Wednesday before later hearing five to six gunshots.
"I just hit the floor," Pruitt said. "I stay up late every night anyway, and I know what to do when I hear that."
Through his large, glass sunroom windows, Pruitt said he saw police officers arrive, answered questions when they asked and watched the blue lights for a while before going to bed.
Pruitt said he also moved to the neighborhood about two years ago. The street, in the Forest Hills neighborhood, is lined with homes built between the 1920s and 1940s. Though several of the houses are dilapidated and the property overgrown, others have carefully trimmed lawns and pots full of daisies.
"I've been trying to clean up this neighborhood," he said. "It just isn't working. This is terrible."
Bell's death is the 24th homicide of 2019, and the third homicide in the past seven days.
Metro on 07/12/2019