Police probe double shooting
Hot Springs police on Thursday said a fatal shooting on Garens Street is connected to a gunshot victim who crashed his car about a mile away around the same time on Wednesday night, but the police chief says it will take a ballistics report to help reconstruct the scene.
Police have identified the victim of the fatal shooting as Charles David Hill, 32, of Hot Springs.
A second man, Demetrius Perry, 20, also of Hot Springs, was shot in the right arm and underwent surgery at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock later in the day on Thurs-
day, police said.
“We had two separate crime scenes and our detectives and the crime scene unit did a fantastic job of managing both scenes and processing and collecting quite a bit of evidence,” Police Chief Jason Stachey said Thursday.
Stachey stressed they believe there were no other people involved in the incident and noted detectives were able to talk to Perry before he went into surgery and get some information from him.
He said detectives were working throughout the day Thursday gathering more evidence and interviewing people.
“The key thing is trying to determine why the shooting occurred in the first place,” Stachey said. “We are waiting on ballistics evidence to determine if there was just one gun involved or two. They are basically working to reconstruct the incident and what led up to the shooting.”
Police said in a news release that officers who responded to the scene of a single-vehicle car crash in the 600 block of Higdon Ferry Road at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday found an unoccupied white Honda sedan with a large amount of blood in and around it, “indicating the driver suffered injuries not consistent with the accident,” and then fled on foot.
“Officers searched the area but did not locate the driver or other occupants. Officers found a firearm and spent shell casing inside the vehicle along with suspected marijuana,” the release said.
The vehicle reportedly struck a fire hydrant at the intersection of Jerome Street and Higdon Ferry Road before coming to rest in a grassy area in front of an apartment complex in the 600 block of Higdon Ferry Road. The vehicle and a portion of the surrounding area were cordoned off Thursday morning by yellow crime scene tape as investigators collected evidence from the scene.
At 10:26 p.m. Wednesday, a 911 call was received from a residence on Garens Street, located about a mile north of where the car was found wrecked. The caller stated a man was outside of their house claiming he had been shot.
Officers and emergency medical services responded to Garens Street and the victim was transported to CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs. The victim, Hill, suffered a single gunshot wound and died at the hospital, the release said. The release did not specify the location of his injury.
Perry, identified as the driver of the vehicle, had been transported to a Malvern hospital from the scene by a relative, according to the release.
Detectives developed information linking the two incidents and persons together, the release said.
“It is believed that Perry and Hill were together in the area of Garens Street when the shooting incident occurred. Police do not believe any other suspects were involved,” it said.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Hot Springs Police Department’s Detective Division at 501-321-6789.