Street gangs blamed for double shooting
LR police have teen suspect in custody
Police believe a double shooting in Little Rock last month involved two rival street gangs, according to a department spokesman.
The double shooting in the 4500 block of Montclair Road on June 24 is also connected to an incident of gunfire that took place two days earlier near West 23rd and South Harrison streets, according to Lt. Steve McClanahan, a police spokesman.
The two connected incidents come as Little Rock has seen a surge in violent crime compared to the same period last year. Violent crime in Little Rock has also attracted state and national attention in the wake of a mass shooting at a downtown nightclub on July 1 that injured more than two dozen people.
A victim told authorities that the “Monroe Gang” was responsible for the June 24 shooting, according to a police report. The street gang is also known as the Monroe Street Hustlers.
Authorities have arrested Glean Finley, 17, in the Montclair Road shooting. McClanahan said Finley is a member of the gang.
Finley has been charged with two counts of first- degree battery, one count of aggravated assault, one count
of unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle and three other charges related to the shooting, court records show.
McClanahan said arrests in violent crime cases allow authorities to take criminals off the streets, if convictions are made, and put them behind bars for extended periods of time.
“It’s a win for the community. It’s a win for that neighborhood,” he said.
According to an arrest affidavit, one witness told police that he was outside talking to people in a silver Kia when another vehicle rolled up. The witness told police that Finley, also known as “Lil Glean,” was in the passenger side of the vehicle that rolled up.
The witness said Finley pointed a firearm outside the window and began shooting, according to the affidavit.
The bullets hit two people — 21- year- old Curtland Watson and a 19- year- old woman who was found shot in the Kia. McClanahan said the woman was not the intended target of the shooting and was an innocent bystander.
When officers arrived on scene, they found the 19- yearold shooting victim in a passenger seat, according to the affidavit. Authorities found Watson on the ground near the intersection of Peyton Street and Montclair Road, suffering from several bullet wounds to his lower abdomen, the affidavit said.
Matthew Hood, 16, was also on scene when the shots rang out on Montclair Road, acv
cording to the affidavit. Hood told police he was talking to people who were inside the silver Kia, outside 4508 Montclair Road, when shots came from a vehicle that drove by, according to the affidavit.
McClanahan said Hood is a member of a gang that is a rival to the “Monroe Gang.” McClanahan declined to identify the gang.
Hood surrendered to police on July 5 after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, court documents show. That warrant stemmed from an incident of gunfire that occurred on June 22, according to Hood’s arrest affidavit.
In that incident, police responded at around 3: 03 p. m. after receiving calls about people in two cars shooting at each other, the court documents said. Police found several .40 caliber shell casings near the intersection of South Harrison and West 23rd streets.
One caller reported that one of the vehicles was a smaller gold car, and police soon located a gold Kia Spectra a “short distance away” from the scene, according to the affidavit.
Police pulled the car over, but three people in it — Watson, Hood, and a third man — tried to flee on foot, authorities said.
Officers found a black .40 caliber handgun in the floorboard of the front passenger side, the same door Hood fled from when police pulled the car over, according to the court documents.
An arrest affidavit was signed by a judge on June 30, and Hood surrendered to police at the 12th Street Substation on July 5, according to an arrest report.
He has been charged with handgun possession by a minor, the report states.
McClanahan said investigators are “looking into” whether the Montclair shooting is connected to the July 1 mass shooting at Power Ultra Lounge, a case that garnered national headlines. A total of 25 people were wounded by gunfire during the shooting, and three others were injured while trying to flee the nightclub.
As of Monday afternoon, police have made no arrests in that case, McClanahan said.
The department is sending cellphone video taken inside the nightclub to the FBI for enhancement, he said, and authorities are still encouraging concert- goers at Power Ultra Lounge during the shooting to contact police.
The shooting came as crime in Little Rock has been trending upward compared with the same time period last year.
According to preliminary police department data, authorities have logged 1,386 violent crimes this year in the city as of June 26, up 24 percent from what police reported through the same date last year. Police include homicide
robbery, rape and aggravated assault in their violent crime figures.
City, state and police officials are looking to combat the surge in violent crime.
On Friday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced the formation of an investigative task force made up of local, state and federal authorities to help stem crime in the city. The group — made up of Little Rock police, the Pulaski County sheriff’s office, the Arkansas State Police, the FBI, Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control and Arkansas Community Correction — will share information and resources to identify and arrest violent criminals in Little Rock.
In his weekly letter to the city, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said he was confident the multiagency law enforcement group “will be very helpful in curbing the violence perpetrated by a small group of individuals who have been bent on retaliation.”
He added that Little Rock police have dedicated “enormous resources to determining who is responsible.”