Man, 19, arrested in east Arkansas slaying; mayor, chief mull 24-hour curfew after 3 homicides

Tre’von Hill
Tre’von Hill

A 19-year-old man has been arrested in one of three fatal shootings that took place over two days in Helena-West Helena, police said Wednesday.

Officers responded at about 10:55 a.m. Friday to a shooting call near Park and Dinan streets in Helena-West Helena, according to a news release by the city’s police department.

Authorities found 20-year-old Jamarius Reese lying facedown with several apparent gunshot wounds in his back, the release states. Police said medics attempted to revive Reese, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Less than an hour later, officers were dispatched to 6th Street and Garland Avenue in response to a second shooting. Around 11:48 a.m., police discovered Donameka Ballard, 24, lying on his back with an apparent gunshot wound in his chest, according to authorities. Ballard was also pronounced dead at the scene.

On Saturday night, police found a third homicide victim inside a vehicle that rolled into a ditch at the intersection of North 3rd Street and East Baldwin Avenue, according to a separate news release by the department.

The man, 27-year-old Antwon Mooney, was transported to Helena Regional Medical Center where he later died, police said.

Witnesses identified Kylan Williams, 21, Tyranza Young, 19, and Tre’von Hill, 19, as persons of interest in Ballard’s slaying, which took place about a mile away from the first homicide, authorities said.

Hill was arrested on a first-degree murder charge and booked into Greene County jail early Tuesday, where he remained Wednesday afternoon, a jail roster shows. His bond was set at $2 million.

Helena-West Helena Police Chief James Smith said authorities were still looking for Williams and Young, and no suspects had been named in Reese’s and Mooney’s deaths.

The chief said he was also working with Mayor Kevin Smith to implement a 24-hour emergency curfew in the city’s high-crime areas.

If the curfew goes into effect, all traffic in these zones, including those on foot, would be subject to stop and investigation, he said.

The chief said he hopes the curfew will be on the city council’s agenda during its next meeting. City council member Joe St. Columbia said the group would next meet Nov. 5.

A similar curfew was implemented in 2008.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that on the first night of the 2008 curfew roughly 20 police officers carrying rifles, shotguns and night-vision scopes patrolled a saturation zone, and police said they arrested about eight people and confiscated drugs and loaded weapons.

At the time, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas decried the measure in a news release issued during the curfew's second day, calling it “unconstitutional” and demanding it be rescinded.

"Imposing house arrest and suspending the Fourth Amendment for law-abiding people is only going to cause more problems for this city," ACLU of Arkansas' then-staff attorney Holly Dickson said in the release. "They need to work with the community to get this resolved instead of treating all of their citizens like criminals."

The all-day curfew ended the following week, though police continued to wield rifles and shotguns as they questioned pedestrians and drivers in other saturation zones.

A call to Dickson and the ACLU of Arkansas about the potential for a 24-hour curfew in Helena-West Helena was not returned Wednesday afternoon.

Chief Smith said he believes implementing a similar strategy might be an effective response to gang violence in the city, adding he’s “not trying to reinvent the wheel. I’m just trying to keep it moving.”

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