Two shootings in three days have resulted in the city's 25th and 26th homicides of 2020, just two short of the number from 2019, with 23 days left to go in the year.
Lt. David DeFoor said that Pine Bluff police responded to a report of a shooting shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday at West 25th Avenue and South Poplar Street to find Albert King III, 32, suffering from a single gunshot wound.
"They went over there at 12:45 this afternoon for a gunshot call," DeFoor told the Pine Bluff Commercial Tuesday evening. "They found Mr. King shot and laying in the street. He was taken to [Jefferson Regional Medical Center], then he was med-flighted to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, and he was pronounced dead at 2:45."
About 4 p.m., DeFoor said, police responded to the same location after another shooting was reported. They arrived, he said, to find a residence at that location "shot up" but said no one was hurt in that incident.
Asked if the two shootings were related, DeFoor said he had not heard of a definite link between the two incidents.
"I'm sure they were," he said. "They are right there next to each other but I'm not involved in the investigation so I don't know what anybody has said over there."
DeFoor said that no suspects have been identified no motive for either shooting is known at this time.
He said that anyone with information should contact the Detective Division at 730-2090 or the dispatch center at 541-5300.
The Pine Bluff Police Department is offering a reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the homicide.
In a separate, unrelated incident that occurred on Saturday, police were called to Jefferson Regional Medical Center just before 6 p.m. regarding a shooting victim who was transported to the hospital by private vehicle. According to the incident report, a man told police at the hospital that he was driving at an unknown location when "people started yelling at him, telling him to stop."
The report said the man stopped, got out of his truck, and saw another man, later identified as Jimmy Douglas, 40, lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to his head. The man told police he then escorted another vehicle to the hospital.
According to police, following initial medical treatment for his wounds, Douglas was airlifted to UAMS in Little Rock where he was later pronounced dead.
On Monday, the report said, Rickey Smith, 43, of Pine Bluff was arrested in connection with the homicide.
On Tuesday night, the Jefferson County jail roster showed that Smith was being held on charges of 1st degree murder and possession of a firearm by certain persons.