LR parolee, 21, charged in police chase, gunfire

A man accused of shooting at Little Rock police while fleeing in a stolen vehicle Sunday has been charged with attempted capital murder.

Michael Deshaun Hill, 21, was arrested Wednesday after police connected him to the pursuit through fingerprints and surveillance footage, according to court filings. Police reportedly found Hill in the area of the chase Sunday, but didn’t have enough evidence at the time to charge him.

Hill, a felon who had been on parole, appeared Thursday morning in Little Rock District Court and pleaded innocent in the case. He was being held at the Pulaski County jail in lieu of $350,000 bond pending a hearing with the state probation and parole office.

Police said Hill is one of two men involved in the carjacking-turned-police pursuit, which began about 12:52 a.m Sunday at 78 Marcella Drive, east of Chenal Parkway. Officers were called to the address after two armed men robbed Dallas Tompkins, 25, of his wallet, cellphone and keys, according to a court affidavit.

The men also took Tompkins’ 2005 Mazda 6 and a bag of food he’d bought at McDonald’s.

Officer Chad Herndon later saw the vehicle at Chenal Parkway and West Markham Street and gave chase, according to the affidavit. Police said the robbers fired at Herndon several times, striking the officer’s vehicle and a house. Herndon did not return fire. No injuries were reported. Herndon chased the robbers about 3 miles to 1800 Labette Manor Drive, where

the stolen vehicle crashed through a chain-link fence and into an apartment building, police reported. The two robbers then fled on foot into a wooded area nearby.

Officers found items of clothing and Tompkins’ wallet along a walking trail, and at the end of the trail, they found Hill, according to the affidavit. Hill was served with two misdemeanor arrest warrants in an unrelated case, but did not immediately face charges in the pursuit.

Police Detective Grant Humphries wrote in the affidavit that home surveillance footage of the carjacking helped investigators develop Hill as a suspect.

“Detectives reviewed video of the robbery … which revealed that the first suspect was wearing shoes that had a distinct reflective area around the shoe laces and also on the heel of both shoes,” Humphries wrote. “Detectives observed that Michael Hill was wearing camouflage Nike tennis shoes that had what appeared to be the same reflective markings.”

Humphries noted that Hill’s facial hair and body type matched the robber seen on video.

Police also found Hill’s fingerprints on a McDonald’s bag in the wrecked Mazda, the affidavit states.

Hill, of Little Rock, was additionally charged with aggravated robbery, felony theft of property, possession of a firearm by certain persons and two counts of committing a terroristic act.

Court records show Hill had been on parole after he and a friend, Anthony Tee Baker, 21, were convicted in a similar case. The two admitted that on the morning of Sept. 9, 2013, they drove south on Interstate 430 and fired multiple shots at

another vehicle. Hill also admitted to shooting at a car parked at a Little Rock apartment complex. The gun, according to police reports, had been reported stolen.

Both initially faced charges of attempted capital murder in the case, but negotiated guilty pleas to lower offenses.

Hill was convicted of two counts of first-degree criminal mischief and sentenced to six years in prison.

Baker was convicted of theft by receiving, two counts of first-degree criminal mischief and three counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm in a vehicle. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Hill’s next court date was set for April 25.

No other arrests had been made in the case late Thursday. An investigation is ongoing.