Park shooting fatal to Blytheville man

Two suspects police say fatally shot a Blytheville man at a park Monday evening have surrendered to authorities, Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson said Wednesday.

Police continue to search for a third suspect in the slaying of Richard Wilkins Jr., 28, who was killed at 8:30 p.m. Monday in Williams Park at 201 W. McHaney Dr. in south-central Blytheville.

Witnesses told police they saw three men in an altercation with Wilkins at the park before he was shot, Thompson said in a statement.

Wilkins was taken by private vehicle to Great River Medical Center, about 3 miles north of the park, Thompson said. He died at the hospital, police said.

Quadrell Dequane Bledsoe, 22, of Blytheville turned himself into authorities Tuesday evening and a juvenile suspect from Blytheville, whom police did not name, also surrendered Tuesday, Thompson said. Police are searching for Cameron Wells, 18, of Blytheville in connection with the shooting. Wells is 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds, police said.

It is the second homicide in two years at Williams Park.

Vincent Stone, 22, was fatally shot during a basketball game at the park June 22, 2015. Earlier that day, about nine blocks east of the park, Kennon Daniels, 20, died after he was shot.

Two people were convicted of first-degree murder in Stone’s death.

Police also investigated a fatal accident on South Franklin Street about four blocks north of Williams Park at the same time as the fatal shooting. A tractor-trailer loaded with steel pipe collided with a vehicle, killing the vehicle’s driver. Police did not name the victim.

An administrative assistant at the Blytheville Police Department said the shooting and fatal accident were not related.

Blytheville Police Department said Bledsoe and the juvenile will be arraigned in Mississippi County District Court today on first-degree murder charges.

It is the third fatal shooting this year in the town of 14,884.

There were 11 homicides in the town last year, according to Capt. Scott Adams, commander of the Blytheville Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division.