Shooting leaves two dead in Alexander
Two gunmen enter mobile home filled with 20 people, open fire, police say
ALEXANDER — Arkansas State Police is investigating a double homicide in Saline County where two men entered a mobile home filled with 20 people and opened fire late Friday night.
Alexander police officers were dispatched to the residence at Vine Street and Arkansas 111 about 11:45 p.m. Friday, according to a news release.
State police were enlisted to help lead the investigation.
Joe Thomas Dickinson, 40, of Little Rock was found dead at the scene. Patricia Tucker, 54, of Alexander was transported by ambulance to an area hospital where she later died, said state police spokesman Bill Sadler.
Neither victim owned the mobile home where the shooting occurred, Sadler said. State police did not release the name of the property owner.
Sadler said the Alexander Police Department would have that information. Calls made to the Alexander Police Department were not answered Saturday.
Law enforcement officers were interviewing those present during the shooting to determine what activity preceded the gunfire, when the shooting started and whether the victims were connected in some way, Sadler said. It was unclear why 20 people were at the mobile home Friday night, he said.
The investigation also will determine whether the gunfire was targeted or random, he said. No other injuries were reported.
“At this time, the names of witnesses are not being released while agents conduct interviews of those individuals inside the residence when the shooting began,” Sadler wrote in an email.
By Saturday afternoon, crime-scene tape in the area had been cleared, and the street where the shooting occurred was quiet. Many people sat outside on porches and had their doors open.
Sita Ledbetter, who lives across the street from the mobile home, said she heard a commotion Friday night and later saw the flashing lights of police cars.
“I only heard one shot, but evidently there were two,” said Ledbetter, 59. “Or at least they [the shots] might have been back to back.”
Ledbetter and other neighbors said the mobile home resident was friendly. Though a number of cars were often parked in front of the mobile home, nothing as serious as this had previously occurred there.
“This is not common,” Ledbetter said. “We’re just a little old town that’s been here forever.”