Student shot, injured at apartment complex near Hendrix College, authorities say

A Conway Police Department vehicle is shown in this file photo.
A Conway Police Department vehicle is shown in this file photo.

Police are investigating after a nursing student was reportedly shot on Saturday while lying in bed at an apartment complex less than a mile west of Hendrix College in Conway.

Officers dispatched to a shots fired call at the Clifton Street Apartments, 1525 Clifton St., shortly before 9:30 p.m. heard a scream from the parking lot and found 19-year-old Jayla Couch suffering from gunshot wounds, according to a report by the Conway Police Department.

Couch had been shot in her right thigh and appeared to have been grazed by a bullet in the arm.

According to the report, the woman told officers she was lying in bed in an apartment unit when she received the wounds. A person who was with the victim when police arrived said that someone drove by and shot at them, authorities said. Couch told authorities that she was a nursing student "and wanted to help people," according to the report. It wasn't immediately clear what school she attended.

Police said two more people came to the scene to provide aid, including a Hendrix public safety officer, until medics arrived. The woman’s injuries weren’t believed to be life-threatening, according to authorities.

A Department of Public Safety officer told investigators he was parked in a gravel lot near the scene and, after hearing shots, saw a light-colored, mid-sized car speeding away from the apartments but wasn’t able to catch up with the vehicle, police said.

No arrests had been made at the time of the report.

The drive-by shooting was the second reported at the complex on Saturday, according to authorities. Police received a similar call at about 11:30 a.m., and several apartments and vehicles were reportedly struck by gunfire. No injuries were reported as a result of the morning gunfire.

Hendrix College spokeswoman Amy Forbus said on Monday that the school’s public safety office sent an alert about the shooting due to its proximity to campus. The apartment complex where the shooting happened isn’t owned by the university, according to Forbus.

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