Two killings push LR total to 29
1 case investigated as murder-suicide; in other, suspect sought
Little Rock detectives Sunday morning began investigating the city’s 28th and 29th homicides of 2017.
Police responded to the first — an apparent murder-suicide — just before 3:30 a.m. at 1600 Elm St., according to Lt. Steven McClanahan, a Little Rock Police Department spokesman.
Officers entered an apartment at the complex and found Anna Williamson, 28, of Little Rock dead inside. McClanahan said Williamson didn’t appear to have suffered gunshot wounds and that a cause of death won’t be released until the medical examiner has made a final determination.
In a nearby apartment, police found the body of Williamson’s boyfriend, Ernest Purdiman, 28, of Little Rock with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police believe Purdiman, who didn’t live at the apartment complex, killed Williamson before shooting himself, McClanahan said.
A crowd of residents gathered outside the apartment just before noon Sunday. Several claimed to know the suspect and victim, but they declined to talk about either person or their deaths.
Homicide detectives were summoned again at about 8:15 a.m. after a family member found Naomi Estrada, 36, of Little Rock dead at her home at 46 Westmont Circle in southwest Little Rock.
Estrada, too, didn’t appear to have been shot, and her cause of death won’t be released until the state Crime Laboratory conducts an autopsy, police said.
Detectives are searching for a suspect who knew Estrada, but no name or information about that suspect was released.
“We want the public to know that neither of these incidents were random in nature,” McClanahan said.
He added that neither incident was connected to Saturday morning’s mass shooting at a downtown club, Power Ultra Lounge, nor the recent spate of violent crimes linked to feuding gangs.
Estrada’s neighborhood, which was lined with crimewatch signs, was quiet as coroners removed her body from the home Sunday morning. A child’s tricycle and other toys filled the carport, and about a dozen potted plants lined the front of her small blue house.
The Rev. Benny Johnson of Arkansas Stop the Violence — a group that raises awareness of crime — rallied a group of city leaders, clergy and state legislators at the Little Rock Police Department’s 12th Street substation on Sunday afternoon.
Johnson, who organized the gathering after Saturday’s mass shooting left 28 injured, criticized local and state officials.
Their response to Saturday’s shooting, Johnson said, far outweighed responses to violence in areas like the one surrounding the 12th Street police substation.
“We should have an outcry over every shooting that occurs, not just those north of Interstate 630,” Johnson said.