One killed in gunfire at party

PINE BLUFF — A party in downtown Pine Bluff ended early Sunday morning with the crowd fleeing gunfire inside the Sahara Shrine Center where one person was killed and eight others injured.

The violence — which included the shooting of a man by a Pine Bluff police officer — came as alumni and the community celebrated homecoming weekend at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

About an hour after authorities responded to the downtown shooting, police were called about two miles away to another shooting that left four injured, two critically so.

All told, the bloody morning in Pine Bluff left 12 people wounded and one dead as police described the complexities of responding to consecutive incidents with multiple casualties while battling conjecture and misinformation.

“You could see chaos. You could see everyone running out the doors. It was chaos,” JT Brown, with the Sahara Shriners said after watching the surveillance video. The center belongs to the fraternal organization and can be rented for events, as it had been over the weekend.

While police have not confirmed the identity of the deceased, Delton Wright, a former Jefferson County justice of the peace, said the person shot to death at the Sahara center was his grandson, Marquarius Williams, 21. Based on the information he gathered, Wright said a stray bullet hit his grandson while he was inside the building.

Police were called shortly before 1 a.m. to the Sahara Shrine Center, which is also known as the Sahara Temple, due to reports of gunfire, Pine Bluff Police Department spokesman Sgt. Richard Wegner said in a news release.

Crowds were flooding into the street as the first officers arrived, and Duane Everett, 24, of Eudora was holding a gun when he was shot by a Pine Bluff officer — not yet named by officials — outside the center at 820 S. Main St., according to an Arkansas State Police news release and Pine Bluff police officials.

State Police detectives are investigating why Everett, who was treated and released from the hospital Sunday, was armed and what he may know about the shootings inside. The agency will also investigate the Pine Bluff officers decision to use deadly force.

Investigators didn’t release any details about what led to the shootings on Sunday, and they also did not identify any suspects or other victims.

Pine Bluff police are investigating the shooting inside the center as well as the shooting that occurred two miles away at about 2:15 a.m., leaving four people injured, including two in critical condition, police said. The second shooting took place at the intersection of University Drive and West Pullen Avenue by St. Joseph’s Cemetery, less than a mile from the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff.

Wegner said several shell casings were found around a car in the intersection where the shooting happened, but he said police couldn’t say if the two shootings were related.

A motive for either shooting is not yet known, Pine Bluff Police Department Interim Chief Lloyd Franklin Sr. said.

Arkansas has seen three other shootings this year that killed or wounded four or more.

The first happened New Year’s Day at Fort Smith club The Wave, resulting in seven people suffering non-fatal injuries.

In April, a drive-by shooting at Cheatham Park in Little Rock left one person dead and three others injured, including 3- and 4-year-old girls.

In June, another shooting injured four people at South Side Park in Magnolia, the Magnolia Reporter reported.

In Pine Bluff, re s i - dents and visitors were celebrating U AP B’ s homecoming across the city Saturday.

A crowd of people, along with vehicles and food trucks, lined both sides of University Drive going north from the intersection following the football game at Simmons Bank Field. Recording artists SWV and Eric Benet performed at the Pine Bluff Convention Center Saturday night.

“We had as many officers out as available and they were working in different areas and establishments to avoid stuff like that,” Franklin said.

Brown said the Sahara Shrine had rented out its center to a group for a homecoming event. As part of the contract, the event holders agreed to bring in local law enforcement as security with the option to hire private security as well, Brown said.

Pine Bluff police did not confirm whether law enforcement were present before the shooting. Calls went unanswered Sunday to the number Brown had on file for the event holders.

When he arrived around 6 a.m. Sunday, Brown saw the glass busted out of the front doors “from people trying to escape,” he said. Inside, the now-cleaned ballroom still had several bullet marks on its gray walls. The exit door from the room to outside had five bullet holes.

The event space has a capacity limit of 400 people, though Brown said there could have been more there late Saturday and early Sunday, judging by the video.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reached out to numerous people who said they had been at the center at the time of the shooting, but all either did not respond or did not wish to be named. Some described seeing party-goers running, falling and trying to escape after shots rung out.

Pine Bluff police said their investigation would take time, and they planned to provide an update this afternoon.