Teen arrested in NLR slaying

Police say victim, suspect in car together before shooting

A Jacksonville teenager was arrested and charged as an adult in the early Sunday morning slaying of a 28-yearold in North Little Rock.

Robert Harris, 17, was arrested at 5:56 a.m. Monday and charged with aggravated robbery and capital murder in the shooting death of Michael Cook.

On Monday, North Little Rock Police Department spokesman Sgt. Brian Dedrick said that the motive for the shooting was robbery, although the circumstances of the robbery and whether it was planned or random remain under investigation.

North Little Rock officers took a shots fired call just before 1 a.m. Sunday in the Neal Place area. When officers reached the intersection of Campbell Road and Whippoorwill Lane, they spotted Cook lying in the middle of the road.

Cook of North Little Rock had been shot multiple times, according to police, and was taken to Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock, where he was pronounced dead.

He is the city’s seventh homicide this year.

Witnesses said Cook and Harris had been sitting inside a vehicle “listening to music” with two other unidentified people before the shooting.

Dedrick said that Cook and Harris were “acquaintances,” but he didn’t know to what degree.

Both witnesses told police that while they were talking in the car, Harris showed off a handgun, and after Cook stepped out of the car, Harris followed him.

One witness told police he left his car and walked into his house when he heard the gunshots.

The other witness, according to detectives’ notes, told investigators that he followed behind Harris “to see” what was happening.

The second witness told

officers that Harris “followed [Cook] at a close distance” and that when the two came back into view, Harris had Cook at gunpoint.

Detectives said Cook “threw items from his person on the ground” only to have Harris open fire several times before running from the area with Cook’s cellphone.

When interviewed by detectives, Harris said that he was in the area during the shooting but denied pulling the trigger.

Dedrick said police didn’t find any drugs at the crime scene but said drugs “could be a factor” in the shooting after one witness claimed the four people in the car were using a drug prior to the shooting.

The shooting remains an active investigation.

“At some point, something happened that led the individual to rob this guy. I don’t know what exactly transpired in the vehicle,” Dedrick said. “We don’t have 100 percent of this story yet.”

Harris has remained in the Pulaski County jail since his early Monday morning arrest.

No bond for his release had been set.

Harris will make his initial appearance in North Little Rock District Court today at 9 a.m.