A 15-year-old boy is being sought on a capital murder charge in Monday's fatal shooting at the Big Country Chateau apartment complex in Little Rock, police said Thursday.
Police were searching for the suspect, Tyler Bland, and didn't have any information on where he was last seen, police spokesman Mark Edwards said.
Police this week also named the victim, identifying him as 41-year-old Noel Marks.
Officers went to the complex at 6200 Colonel Glenn Road just after 1 p.m. Monday in response to a report of a "subject down," according to an incident report.
They found Marks dead of apparent gunshot wounds, the report says. It says the body was transported to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory for an autopsy and identification.
The homicide was Little Rock's 81st this year and the year's third at the 57-year-old complex, which sits just off Colonel Glenn Road near the intersection of South University Avenue and the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The state attorney general's office filed a lawsuit in August against the complex's owners in response to findings that the water and electrical services tenants had paid for as part of their rent were at risk of being shut off.
Regulators found that the complex owed $222,932 in water bills as of August because it had not been paying regularly since January 2020, court filings show.
According to the lawsuit, apartment operators deliberately rented apartments knowing they could be unsafe and further accepted payment from tenants to pay for water and electrical services but failed to use the money for utilities.
Court records show Big Country was charging as much as $800 per month in rent in 2021, which was supposed to cover electric, gas, water and trash pickup.
Marks' killing added to what was already a record year for homicides in the capital city.
Previously, the most Little Rock had in a year was 76 in 1993. Last year, the city had 65 homicides.
Police said people with information about Bland's whereabouts can contact homicide detectives at (501) 371-4660. Tips can also be submitted through the YourLRPD app.
Information for the article was contributed by Grant Lancaster of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.