LR officer struck by vehicle
Suspect found demanding beer, jailed on multiple charges
The man facing two counts of aggravated robbery as well as first-degree battery after his car struck a Little Rock police officer early Monday afternoon was “intoxicated,” according to department officials.
Donovan Fulton, 34, had stolen a bottle of wine at the Valero gas station at 8822 Stagecoach Road shortly after noon, according to department spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis, when an employee followed the man outside and flagged down a nearby officer.
Davis said Little Rock patrol officer Linda Allen was sitting in her car on the southwest side of the business and working on a traffic report in her car when the employee got her attention for help.
Allen moved her squad car to the southeast side of the business, got out and tried to stop Fulton from leaving, but according to Davis, Fulton “hopped” into his car and put it in reverse with the driver’s side door open.
Allen was standing along the driver’s side when the car backed up, and the open door struck the officer, knocking her to the ground.
Fulton’s dark-colored, older model two-door Honda Accord took off, leaving Allen on the ground of the gas station parking lot.
An employee used the
officer’s radio to report there was an “officer down,” Davis said.
City police, Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies and state police were radioed a description of the vehicle and Little Rock officers, using a description of the car, went to Fulton’s listed address at 4411 Hirschy Lane.
On their way, an officer spotted Fulton’s vehicle parked in the Exxon gas station at Scott Hamilton Drive and Interstate 30, Davis said.
They went to the business at 7700 Scott Hamilton Drive, and found the car empty at around 12:30 p.m., less than half an hour after Allen was injured.
Arrest reports said officers went inside the business and found Fulton wielding a knife and demanding “beer and cigarettes” from the clerk.
He was arrested and taken to the Pulaski County jail.
Allen, who joined the department in 1991, suffered a concussion and spent Monday night in a local hospital for routine observation, according to Davis.
Fulton was arrested in March 2008 and negotiated guilty pleas to felony drug charges in January 2009, where he received a five-year probation sentence as well as four months in jail.
Fulton violated the terms of his probation in October 2011, according to court records, and was sentenced to another five years of supervised probation.
In addition to the robbery and battery charges, Fulton was also charged with a DWI and driving on a suspended license.
He remained in the Pulaski County jail Monday night. No bond had been set for his release.