Police identify suspect in north Arkansas deputy's shooting; name of wounded woman also released

Keith Stokes (right) of Dardanelle pays his respects Friday as the police procession escorting the body of Stone County Deputy Mike Stephen leaves the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock.
Keith Stokes (right) of Dardanelle pays his respects Friday as the police procession escorting the body of Stone County Deputy Mike Stephen leaves the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock.

Arkansas State Police on Friday identified a deceased suspect and an injured woman who were involved in a shooting that killed a Stone County sheriff's deputy a day earlier.

Samuel Fullerton, 39, of 2021 Flag Road, Leslie in Stone County, has been identified as the deceased suspect in Thursday's shooting.

Erika Johnson, 32, a resident at the Flag Road address, has been identified as the woman who was wounded in the shooting. Her wound was not life-threatening, authorities said.

On Thursday, authorities identified the deputy who was killed as Sgt. Mike Stephen, 56, of Pineville.

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Bill Sadler, a spokesman for the state police, said the sheriff's office received a call at 8:02 a.m. regarding a domestic disturbance in rural southwest Stone County, and Stephen got to the residence 37 minutes later.

"As he approached the house, he encountered a female he began talking to," Sadler said. "In short order, gunfire erupted, and Deputy Stephen was killed at the scene."

Two Stone County sheriff's deputies were with Stephen when the gunfire began, according to an Arkansas State Police news release.

Sadler said the suspect also was killed in the gunfire. He didn't say whether Stephen had returned fire.

Stephen's body was released from the state Crime Laboratory Friday morning after an autopsy. Forensic evidence recovered at the scene has also been submitted to the Crime Lab for analysis.

Fullerton was previously charged in 2018 with four counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, one count of aggravated assault and one count of second-degree battery, according to court documents. The last document in the case was a legacy docket sheet filed on June 27.

"In small town Arkansas everybody knows everybody," Sadler said at at a news conference Thursday afternoon in Mountain View.

Stephen was the fire chief in Pineville, just across the county line in Izard County, along with his wife and other family members, Chief Deputy Zach Alexander said at the news conference.

"He will be greatly missed in this community," he said.

Stephen was also former senior team leader at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, former sergeant first class E-7 in the U.S. Army and former sergeant at the Mountain View Police Department, according to his Facebook page.

Stephen was from Dolph in Izard County and went to Calico Rock High School. At the age of 16, he joined his father on the Calico Rock Fire Department, according to a 2016 article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

In 2005, Stephen moved to Pineville and joined the Pineville Volunteer Fire Department, according to the article. The next year, he became chief.

Stephen's wife, Susan; their son Jacob; and Stephen's father, Joe, were Pineville firefighters, according to the 2016 article. His father is also mayor of Pineville.

In January 2018, Mike Stephen, as a firefighter, responded to a two-vehicle accident in Baxter County to discover that his son Joseph, 25, had died in the crash, Alexander said Thursday afternoon.

photo

A map showing the location of the Stone County shooting.

State Desk on 07/20/2019

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