Little Rock police responded to the fifth homicide in 53 hours Sunday morning after a 911 caller reported a body facedown on the ground in a southwest city neighborhood, a police spokesman said.
Officers responded at 8:40 a.m. to 7417 Loretto Lane, where a 911 caller reported seeing a body near a grove of trees, police spokesman Lt. Michael Ford said. According to Ford, the victim appeared to have been shot.
“It was a recent homicide,” Ford said. “Probably in the last 24 hours. He had a gunshot wound to the body.”
Ford said the man was in his late 20s or early 30s and was found wearing blue jeans and a sweatshirt. Investigators had not yet identified him as of Sunday night.
There is no indication this homicide is connected to a triple homicide on West 14th Street on Friday night or a fatal shooting Friday morning on West 17th Street.
Three people — all 20 years old or younger — were found about 10:45 p.m. Friday suffering from gunshot wounds in a wrecked vehicle near the 4400 block of West 14th Street, interim Police Chief Alice Fulk said Saturday during a news conference.
Two women in the car were transported to a local hospital, where they died. A man who was also in the vehicle died at the scene. A fourth person, a 17-year-old boy, was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in a nearby yard.
The triple homicide is the city’s first since July 11, 2017, when a woman and her two children were gunned down in their home.
Fulk identified Kennelle Anderson, LaTija Luckey and Carrington Williams as the three people killed Friday night. Williams and Luckey were Little Rock residents. Anderson lived in Hot Springs, she said.
When asked if this was the most violent weekend in Little Rock this year, Ford said he would have to look at the data, but that “it does feel like the most violent weekend we’ve had in some time.”
“That is a lot of grieving families right before the holidays,” Ford said. “Our hearts and our prayers are going out to the families.”
The city of Little Rock announced on Sunday that the reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of any person involved in the triple homicide had been increased.
Ford said city officials made the decision to increase the reward from $10,000 to $50,000.
“We do usually get increased community participation when the reward is increased,” Ford said.
Ford said homicide detectives were working long hours in an effort to close these cases.
“We realize there is an up-tick and we are on it,” Ford said. “We have to do something better as an agency and a community to not have these homicides happen.”
Ford said he couldn’t release any information surrounding the possible circumstances that lead to the homicides.
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Video from the scene
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