Other days
100 YEARS AGO April 26, 1919
■ Patrolmen Browning and McNamee yesterday morning early engaged in a pistol fight with a “whiskey runner” near Seventh and Railroad streets. The “whiskey runner” escaped, after several shots had been exchanged. Browning and McNamee had hid near that street intersection … a train employee was seen to drop a suitcase from the window of the coach. … They were scarcely ten feet from it when McNamee saw the “whiskey runner.” When the officer ordered him to halt, the man opened fire. … The grip, containing the liquor, was taken to headquarters.
50 YEARS AGO April 26, 1969
CLEVELAND — Todd Quester, 5, bitten by a brown recluse spider 10 days ago, showed some improvement Friday for the first time since lapsing into a coma Tuesday. Dr. Michael Wald, a specialist in metabolism, who is treating the Amherst, O., child, along with Dr. Thomas Teree and a score of consultants told newsmen: “Todd Quester appears slightly improved this morning for the first time in four days.” Todd had been given nine injections Thursday of a special serum flown to the United States in a string of mercy flights stretching from Brazil to Cleveland.
25 YEARS AGO April 26, 1994
■ Little Rock patrol Officer Linda Barron held a 9mm pistol that accidentally discharged, striking another officer in the arm as the officers tried to arrest a woman Saturday night, police said. A three-year police veteran, Barron, 36, remained on the job Monday pending an internal investigation into the shooting at 7108 Redwood St. in West Little Rock. Lt. Charles Holladay said Monday that the bullet entered officer Ora Jenkins’ right arm just below the elbow. She was treated at a Little Rock hospital and released, he said. The shooting occurred when Barron, Jenkins and a third officer tried to pull Lisa Malott, 26, from the door of her house during a standoff at the residence about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, police said.
10 YEARS AGO April 26, 2009
■ A North Little Rock policeman stopping a man reported to be driving while drunk Saturday wasn’t expecting to find a homemade shotgun and what he called an “improvised bomb factory” in the man’s van. Police didn’t release the man’s name Saturday, but said that he had been reported as a potential drunken driver around 2 p.m. The man drove his Chevrolet Lumina van into the parking lot at Baptist Health Medical Center’s emergency room entrance when the officer attempted to pull him over. “He explained to the officer what he had on the dashboard, a homemade shotgun,” police Lt. Thomas Latina said. The bomb squad was called because the officer was concerned that there might’ve been explosives in the vehicle. “It’s a homemade weapon that we don’t know how to make safe, so we’re going to have the people trained in that stuff do it for us,” Latina said. By around 3 p.m. the bomb squad had disarmed the weapon, which had a shotgun shell inside it and a nail as a firing pin, police said. While working, police roped off a 100-foot perimeter around the van.