Little Rock Police chief says witnesses won’t cooperate with officers

LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock Police chief says his department has suspects in several recent shootings but can’t move forward because of a lack of cooperation from witnesses.

Police Chief Kenton Buckner told city officials at a meeting Sunday that while he understands there can be repercussions for talking to officers, those witnesses can use the anonymous call line or give police a name of someone officers should check into, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Preliminary police data show there have been 20 homicides and over a thousand violent crimes in Little Rock so far this year, compared to nine over the same period last year.

Nearly 60 shootings in Little Rock this year have injured more than 70 people as of Friday. There were 31 non-fatal shootings and 32 victims in the same time period last year.

Buckner said the spike in crime is mostly back-and-forth retaliation between two rival groups.

“You’ll have individuals who are family members of the (victim) who is either deceased or shot, who can be shot in broad daylight in a room like this, and no one has seen anything,” Buckner said. “Then that same group of people will say, ‘What are y’all going to do about that shooting? Why haven’t y’all picked up that guy yet?’ — Well, why haven’t you come in and given a statement?”

After three shootings last week, two of which were fatal, Buckner decided to add 10 more officers to the violent crime team, which was formed three months ago.

“I understand we’ve got some pretty good ideas on who these suspects are, and I hope we can focus and target those individuals,” Mayor Mark Stodola said.

The public can address the Little Rock Board of directors about the violence today at a City Hall meeting.